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A BULWARK AGAINST 
GERMANY 



A BULWARK AGAINST 
GERMANY 



THE FIGHT OF THE SLOVENES, THE 
WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGO- 
SLAVS, FOR NATIONAL EXISTENCE 



v BY 

BOGUMIL VOSNJAK, LL.D. 

LATE LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB (CROATIA) 
MEMBER OF THE JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



• \ 

Copyright, 1919. by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



^ 



*1 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 



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I CI.A5 1.5644 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION is to be 
credited with the outburst of nationality 
which, surviving its overthrow, became a 
marked characteristic of the nineteenth century and 
has become a factor with which statesmen of the 
twentieth century must reckon. Submerged peoples 
who had lost their sense of importance and to whom 
the traditions of the past were without influence 
upon their present, awoke to the fact that they too 
had a right to exist, that they should in some way 
be consulted as to their destiny, if they were not to 
be their own masters, and that they should be united 
in some way and at some time with peoples of a 
kindred origin, although they had long ceased to 
have any political connection with each other and 
were in fact living under different governments. 
The spirit of subject-races and subject-peoples which 
had so long lain dormant asserted itself. 

Americans are especially familiar with the at- 
tempt of the Hungarians to free themselves from 
Austrian domination, although the Magyars have 
unfortunately shown themselves unwilling to grant 
to others what they heroically sought for themselves. 
The world knows by heart the aspirations of the 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

Italian peoples, largely realized in a united Italy and 
likely to be more completely achieved in the immedi- 
ate future. The world also knows by heart the long- 
ings of the German peoples for unity and rejoiced 
when a united Germany took its place in the sun, al- 
though that expression did not then carry the odium 
which to-day attaches to it. What has been done 
can be done again. What one people has accom- 
plished another may hope to do. As the old cock 
crows, the proverb has it, so the young one learns. 

In the last forty years the feeling of nationality 
has expressed itself most strongly in the Balkan 
peninsula, for centuries under the boot and spur of a 
ruthless master. Among the people of the peninsula 
the Serbs have emerged and to-day govern them- 
selves as an independent kingdom. The Monte- 
negrins, Serbs by race and Montenegrins by loca- 
tion, are likewise a kingdom. Two kingdoms in- 
deed, but one people. To the north and the west of 
Serbia and Montenegro, the Croatians and the Slo- 
venes. The former are Serbs, differing from them 
only in speech (the literary language is identical) 
and in religion, although they have been politically 
separated for a thousand years and more. They 
are said to number a little less than 4,000,000. To 
the northwest of the Croatians are the Slovenes, ap- 
proximately 1,500,000 souls, extending to the coast 
in the neighborhood of Trieste and Istria, a region 
in which they had been a predominating element 
within a century or two of the fall of Rome. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

Mr. Asquith has truly and happily said that many 
things are possible to-day which were unthinkable 
before the outbreak of the great war of 1914. One 
of these possibilities is a union of the three Slavic 
peoples known, because of their situation to the 
south of Germany and Austria, as the Jugo or South- 
ern Slavs. They are, as a matter of fact, but differ- 
ent branches of one and the same race, anxious to be 
a united people under a government of their own 
choice, forming a unitary State rather than a Feder- 
ation of States. With this movement, for it has 
ceased to be a mere aspiration, the people of the 
United States must have a peculiar sympathy, inas- 
much as we of this part of the world believe that, ir- 
respective of origin, of party, or of religion, "gov- 
ernments are instituted among men deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." Or, 
expressed in other terms, we believe in the principle 
of self-determination and its application to the con- 
crete case. 

Dr. Vosnjak's little book shows how these peoples, 
particularly the Slovenes, deserve more than sym- 
pathy at our hands, and how the union of the Jugo- 
slavs would be, as can be understood from a glance 
at the map, a "Bulwark" not only against the Ger- 
many of to-day, but against the Germany of to-mor- 
row. 

James Brown Scott. 
Washington, D. C. 



PREFACE 

ONE of the primary causes of the World- War 
was Germany's determination in the inter- 
ests of Pan-Germanism to crush the Jugo- 
slavs; and from this point of view the cataclysm of 
1914 was merely the crisis in the long and dogged 
struggle which has been waged for centuries be- 
tween Germanism and the Jugoslavs, and of which 
European public opinion has been so curiously ig- 
norant. 

In this struggle the Serbs and Croats were more 
fortunately placed than their brothers the Slovenes, 
who, being the most westerly of the Jugoslavs, were 
compelled to bear the brunt of the German attack. 
In the early Middle Ages the Slovenes were first 
among the Jugoslavs to found an independent State, 
and though they were also fated to be the earliest 
victims of German conquest, they nevertheless con- 
tinued to form a strong ethnical barrier, beyond 
which Serbs and Croats, sheltered from the tyran- 
nical influence of the Holy Roman Empire, could 
develop their social and national characteristics. 
But it was not until the nineteenth century, when 
Pan-Germanism began to expand towards the south- 
ern seas, that the Slovenes became in truth the Bul- 
wark of their race, and the severity of their struggle 
warned the rest of the Jugoslavs that their fate too 

9 



10 PREFACE 

was hanging in the balance. Owing to their north- 
westerly position the Slovenes form the true na- 
tional, political, and economic rampart of Jugoslav- 
dom, and like outposts on exposed ground they 
watched the advance of the gigantic foe whose pur- 
pose it was to destroy the Jugoslavs and enslave 
Italy. For the dire menace of the German peril was 
always felt in the Slovene north sooner than in 
Zagreb (Agram) or Belgrade or in the cities of 
Lombardy. 

As the book had to be written in a foreign coun- 
try, the author was obliged to draw mainly on his 
personal knowledge and memory, and the material 
at his disposal unfortunately, was not as extensive 
as it would have been in his own country. For this 
and other reasons the book does not pretend to deal 
exhaustively with Slovene life in all its aspects. 
Only a historian of literature could adequately in- 
terpret Slovene intellectual life to the American pub- 
lic, and illustrate the value of Slovene literature to 
the nation and to humanity ; for the Slovenes boast 
a considerable number of men of letters worthy of 
a niche in the world's pantheon of literary genius. 
And only a master of word-painting could do jus- 
tice to the beauty and charm of the Slovene lands in 
language of sufficient wealth and beauty. 

The author is conscious of being neither a poet 
nor a literary expert, and has therefore contented 
himself with sketching in broad outlines the origin 
and history of the Slovene people, in an endeavor to 



PEEFACE 11 

acquaint the American people with a small and un- 
known ally, but one whose pluck and perseverance 
has long and sturdily withstood Pan-Germanism on 
the shores of the Adriatic. 

The chapters in this book were written in spring, 
1915 — with the exception of Chapter XII, which was 
written in spring, 1916 — with the object of bringing 
the Slovenes nearer to American readers, and to un- 
fold to them a new national world and its past and 
present, its aims and aspirations. It may come as 
a surprise to some readers to realize that German 
methods have been at work for a thousand years in 
the Slovene lands, and to trace the connection be- 
tween the events and conditions described in these 
pages and some of the burning questions of the 
hour. 

It is almost an article of religious faith with the 
Slovenes that the present crisis will decide their fate. 
They feel that it is a question of now or never, and 
that the long, grim struggle must at last lead to com- 
plete national independence, or else end in national 
extinction. 

But the end of this struggle cannot be a matter 
of indifference to the world, for by the national 
death of the Slovenes an extremely important strip 
of territory would become German. In that case 
Germany would be the real gainer, as German Gov- 
ernment tactics and German social ideals would tri- 
umph where to-day the Slav democratic ideal is still 
holding its own against fearful odds. 



12 PREFACE 

My book is not conceived in a spirit of hate or 
controversy. It is merely intended to throw an im- 
portant light on the life-or-death struggle waged by 
a poor but self-reliant and courageous people who 
are coming forward at this great moment in history, 
convinced of the justice and integrity of their cause. 

B.V. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



PAGE 



I. NATIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE SLOVENES OC- 
CASIONED BY THE POLITICAL ATTITUDE 
OE GERMANY 15 

II. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OE THE SLOVENE 

LANDS 20 

III. THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH OE THE 

JUGOSLAVS AND ITS NEIGHBORS 29 

IV. THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OE THE 

SLOVENES 66 

V. A CHAPTER OE THE OLD SLOVENE DEMOC- 
RACY 95 

VI. THE ERENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS . . . •• 115 

VII. POLITICAL RENASCENCE OE THE SLOVENES I25 

VIII. THE STRUGGLE EOR THE CONSTITUTION ... 141 

IX. THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 151 

X. THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIAN EOREIGN 

POLICY . l66 

XI. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 1?$ 

13 



14 CONTENTS 

OHAPTBB PAGE 

XII. SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 1 88 

XIII. SLOVENE ECONOMICS 236 

XIV. THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 251 

XV. THE STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL LlEE . . 263 

XVI. THE GREAT AIMS OE A SMALL PEOPLE .... 274 



NATIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE SLOVENES 

OCCASIONED BY THE POLITICAL 

ATTITUDE OF GERMANY 

THE Great War has brought the Jugoslav 
question into prominence, and the greatest 
event of a generation is indissolubly bound 
up with the Jugoslav struggle for existence. Yet 
America at present knows very little of the most 
western branch of the Jugoslavs (Southern Slavs), 
which, though caught as in a wedge between Ger- 
mans, Magyars, and Italians, yet dares to look for- 
ward to a happier future. If it is true that Amer- 
ica has only recently discovered the Serbs and 
Croats, it is fairly safe to say that as yet she knows 
not enough about the Slovenes. And yet for cen- 
turies the Slovenes have opposed German aggres- 
sion in the cause of democracy and the equal rights 
of nations — in short, for the same ideas which im- 
pelled the Allied Powers to take up arms on behalf 
of Belgium and Serbia; only with this difference, 
that the conflict between German brutality and the 
Slovenes was confined to the narrow borders of 
home politics far removed from the general knowl- 
edge of the world, whereas the World- War is being 
fought out in the full light of public opinion. 

Hitherto the Slovenes have attracted very little 
interest, and yet they occupy an important geo- 

15 



16 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

graphical position in the Slav world, as their terri- 
tory lies close to the very heart of Austria and they 
constitute the only obstacle between Germany and 
the Adriatic. They are the western branch of the 
Jugoslavs nation, numbering about one and a half 
millions, and forming the bulk of the inhabitants 
of Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, Gorica-Gradiska, 
Istria, and Trieste — that is to say, of six of the 
kingdoms and principalities represented in the 
Vienna Reichsrat. More than any other Slav na- 
tionality, excepting the Czechs, they have become 
imbued with Western civilization and Western 
ideas, and it would be a great misfortune, not 
only for the Slav race but for Europe, if this sturdy, 
industrious, and intelligent young people were con- 
demned to be Germanized or Italianized through 
oversight or neglect on the part of the statesmen 
whose task it will be to formulate the terms of the 
world-peace. 

At the end of the war Jugoslavs will be con- 
fronted by the great task of reconciling and fusing 
the ideas and ideals of the Slav races in the East 
with those of the Latin and Anglo-Saxon races in 
i the West. And the solution of this problem will 
be greatly helped by strengthening such Slav ele- 
ments as by their nature form the link between East 
and West. 

By instigating the World- War, Germanism has 
shown itself a champion of race-hatred and racial 
conflict, and certainly not an element of culture 



THE SLOVENES' NATIONAL STUGGLE 17 

capable of uniting the nations of Europe in peace- 
ful progress. Europe has learnt to its cost what 
immense sacrifices and efforts will be necessary if 
the spectre of German world-rule is to be laid for 
ever. Experience is proving the danger of having 
allowed Germany to become so great that German 
organization and German "discipline" could im- 
peril the peaceful relations between the States of 
Europe, and the issue of the present war can only 
assure us the blessing of peace in the future if all 
the natural obstacles to German aggression are ade- 
quately supported and strengthened. From this 
point of view the case of the nations who have had 
to fight for their very existence with Germany has 
become a world problem, and it is from this point 
of view that this book on the Slovenes has been 
written. 

The history of the Slovenes is the story of a 
desperate struggle for national existence. From 
the days of Charlemagne till the World-War this 
struggle has been waged without peace, armistice, 
or hope of reconciliation, and it can only end in 
victory or national extinction. Germany has de- 
nied the right of existence to the Slovenes, who 
have had to fight in turn for their language, their 
land, civil and democratic freedom, social existence, 
and the chance of development. 

The watchword of the Slovenes is, "War to the 
knife against Germanism," and for centuries noth- 
ing has stirred the soul of the nation so deeply as 



18 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the hope and expectation of seeing the detested 
German Junkerdom finally crushed by the Allied 
Powers. Thus would the Slovenes be rid of their 
worst enemy, and they might reasonably look for- 
ward to a freer and happier future. 

In speaking of the fate of the Slovenes, we might 
mention principles of government as practiced by 
Germany. Here we find clumsiness, absurd ped- 
antry, brutal illiberality, and fatuous pettiness. 
And a people so wanting in statecraft, so lacking in 
tact and political fisdom, have the ludicrous au- 
dacity to call themselves Lords of the World! 

In the treatment of the languages problem in 
Austria by the Germans and their puppets, the 
Austrian Government provided an exhibition of 
ridiculous incapacity. Years ago, the Government 
regarded it as decidedly unpatriotic if a German 
candidate for an official position in a district of 
mixed nationality showed himself conversant with 
the non-German tongue of the district; whereas 
it surely would seem more suitable to send a Ger- 
man official, who only knew German, to an ex- 
clusively German district. But the German mind 
cannot entertain the idea that a native population 
has any conceivable claim to having its administra- 
tion carried on in its own language. 

The behaviour of the Germans in Posen, Schles- 
wig, and Alsace-Lorraine affords ample proof of 
their iincompetency to deal with a civil popula- 
tion possessing a separate language. Not strong 



THE SLOVENES' NATIONAL STRUGGLE 19 

enough to exterminate the non-German nationality, 
their aggressive intolerance has only roused intense 
opposition, and has made the Germans the worst 
hated of all nations in the world. 

It is amazing that the Germans in Austria should 
have been equally short-sighted. The Slavs have 
contributed greatly towards safe-guarding the Em- 
pire against the Turks, and surely had a full claim 
to a just share in it, seeing that they formed the 
majority of the population. Moreover, the Aus- 
trian Slav tongues are closely related, they boast an 
important literature, and are sister-tongues of the 
Russian language, which is spoken over more than 
one-sixth of the globe; good reason, one would 
suppose, why a German official should study the 
language of his district and thereby greatly facili- 
tate his official duties. 

The clumsy tactlessness of the Germans renders 
them quite unfit for the creation of a great colonial 
Empire, and it is to be hoped that the world-peace 
will reduce them once more to the position of a con- 
tinental nation which is content to grow potatoes 
and speculate on metaphysics. A nation that has 
proved itself incapable of creating a regime of civil 
liberty at home, has no right to compel other nations 
to submit to a yoke of blind obedience to an aristo- 
cratic and military bureaucracy; but if Germany 
were to become a world-Power, she would still re- 
main incapable of evolving either Home Rule or any 
other form of independent Constitution for even the 
most civilized nations which had the misfortune to 
fall under her sway. 



II 



POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SLO- 
VENE LANDS 

DURING the course of centuries the Slovenes 
have lost quite half their national territory, 
but the true interest of their case lies in the 
historical importance attaching to their fate. With 
the German encroachment upon Slovene territory 
from the north-west, and Magyar inroads from the 
north-east, the bridge that linked up the Northern 
Slavs with the Jugoslavs was broken down. This 
ancient fact has acquired renewed political and 
diplomatic importance through the World- War, and 
it will be one of the problems of European diplo- 
macy to restore this lost connection between North- 
ern Slavs and Jugoslavs. 

In the seventh century the Slovenes and their kins- 
men, the Serbs and Croats of to-day, migrated into 
the lands south and west of the Danube, and if they 
had been guided by a judicious policy when settling 
in their new home, they might easily have developed 
into one of the Central Powers of Europe. The 
heritage then occupied by the western Jugoslavs 
comprised present-day Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, 
Gorica-Gradiska, eastern Friuli, eastern Tyrol, the 
Lungau in Salzburg, all Upper and Lower Austria 
south of the Danube, and all Pannonia west of the 
Danube. Thus the Slovenes were masters of a 

20 



POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 21 

large tract of country, practically the whole of the 
later Habsburg possessions, and at least one-fourth 
of Hungary. As this territory reached as far as the 
Danube, the Slovene lands bordered on Czech terri- 
tory on a frontier in the north-west. Besides their 
brother-Slavs, the Czechs, the Slovenes had the Ba- 
varians as their neighbors in the north, and the Lom- 
bards of Northern Italy in the south-west. 

Many of the place-names in the Austrian Alpine 
provinces are Slovene to this day. The word 
"windish" (i. e. "Slovene") which occurs frequently 
in the place-names of the Tyrol, Salzburg, Lower 
Austria, and even of Bavaria, is always proof of a 
former Slovene settlement. 

Unfortunately as settlers the Slovenes proved 
themselves neither judicious nor far-sighted. In- 
stead of occupying the marshes, and thus protecting 
the country against possible attacks, they preferred 
to concentrate in the hilly interior, leaving the gates 
open to foreign invaders. Their descendants have 
had bitter cause to rue this neglect, for if the early 
settlers had been wiser, Slovene territory would 
never have dwindled as it has actually done. Origi- 
nally extending from the Inn, the Erno, and the 
Danube right down to the Adriatic, it has now 
shrunk to barely half its former size, to the incal- 
culable detriment of the whole Slav race. 

At one time the Czechs were neighbors cf the 
Slovenes, not only in the north-west but also in the 
north-east. In proposing to unite Bohemia with 



22 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the Jugoslavs by a strip of territory extending 
southward from the neighborhood of Pozun (Press- 
burg), Denis, who has delved more deeply into 
Slovene history than any other modern writer, 
touched upon one of the Slav peoples' most impor- 
tant geographical and political problems. The Mag- 
yar wedge which now divides the Northern Slavs 
from the Jugoslavs did not exist in the early days of 
Slav settlement when Bohemian territory bordered 
upon the Slovene. To this day the counties of 
Szala and Vas as far as Szopron are largely inhab- 
ited by Slovenes, and so the distance between the 
most northerly of the Jugoslavs (in Szopron) and 
the most southerly of the Northern Slavs, the 
Czechs in Pozun (Pressburg) is scarcely greater 
than the distance between Vienna and Pozun. Dur- 
ing the centuries of Slovene independence, before 
the Magyars came into the country and settled on 
the shores of the lake of Balaton, western Pannonia 
was the centre of Slovene political power and intel- 
lectual life. Thus far east did the Slovene sway ex- 
tend, and to this day Nagy Kanizsa and many other 
important towns in Hungary bear Slovene names. 

A map of the Slovene lands of to-day forms a 
melancholy contrast to a historical map of a few 
hundred years ago. German aggression from the 
north and Magyar aggression from the east have 
woefully encroached upon the borders of the Slo- 
venes, by sheer force of numbers pressing more and 
more heavily upon the most western of the Jugo- 



POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 23 

slavs and gradually ousting them from their inheri- 
tance. In this respect the Italians have been far less 
dangerous neighbors. 

At present Slovene territory extends about as far 
towards the west as does the territory of the Czechs 
farther north. It reaches its north-western extrem- 
ity in sv. Mohor on the Zila, north of Pontafel, and 
is bounded on the west by a line drawn from sv. 
Mohor down to Resia on Italian soil, and then east 
of Cedad (Cividale) and as far as Kormin (Cor- 
mons). From Kormin (Cormons) the Slovene 
boundary runs to the south of Gorica (Gorizia) and 
along the Soca (Isonzo) almost as far as Gradiska, 
and then along the southern slope of the Kras 
(Carso) down to the sea. In the south the Adri- 
atic forms the boundary via Trieste and Koper and 
as far as Pirano, where the Croat element begins to 
predominate, and mingles with the Slovene element 
on the coast. In Istria Slovenes and Croats live 
side by side, and it is not necessary to define a 
boundary between the two branches of the Jugoslav 
race. Towards the east a boundary is provided by 
the political frontier of Croatia, extending north- 
wards from Reka (Fiume) as far as Radgona 
(Radkersburg) in Styria, the inhabitants of Zum- 
berak (Sichelburg) being more Croat than Slovene. 
North of Radgona (Radkersburg) the linguistic 
continuity of the Jugoslav territory extends only as 
far as St. Gothard on the Raab, but a few scattered 
Jugoslav communities exist in Vas and Szala, as has 



24 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

already been stated, and there is an isolated Slovene- 
speaking district near Szopron. 

No Jugoslav can think without bitterness of the 
northern racial boundaries, for it is there that the 
Jugoslavs have lost most ground, and that the full 
force of the German attack has told most heavily on 
the Slovene people. The northern frontier has al- 
ways been the vulnerable point in Jugoslav territory, 
and nowhere has the national struggle been waged 
more violently or with heavier losses than in the 
fruitful wine country of Styria, and the Alpine for- 
est-land of Carinthia. In this connection it is in- 
teresting to note that none of the maps dating from 
the days of Austrian Absolution betray any attempt 
to belittle Slovene territory. In its dealings with 
the various national problems of the Dual Mon- 
archy, the absolutism of a bygone age was far more 
just than the German National fanaticism of to-day. 

In the fifties of the nineteenth century the official 
linguistic boundary ran considerably farther north 
than it does now. On the old maps it is traced as 
passing between the districts of Maribor and Graz 
in Styria, and therefore coincides with the true di- 
viding line between German and Slovene linguistic 
territory. Beyond a doubt, therefore, Austria was 
in those days more generously disposed towards a 
nationalist policy, but this tolerance vanished as 
soon as the various nationalities were handed over 
to Prussianism. At present the official northern 
linguistic boundary runs from Radgona (Radkers- 



POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 25 

burg) on the Mur, through Spielfeld and Arvez 
(Arnfels) to Labod (Lavamund) in Carinthia. 
From there it passes north of Velikovec and Klagen- 
furt, through the historically famous Gosposvetsko 
Polje to Blatograd (Moosburg), thence through the 
Vrbsko and Osojsko Lakes to Beljak (Villach), till 
it reaches the north-western limit of Jugoslav lin- 
guistic territory in sv. Mohor (Hermagor) in the 
Zila valley. ; 

This territory includes the crown lands of Carin- 
thia, Styria, Carniola, and the Austrian-Illyrian lit- 
toral. Roughly speaking, it is bordered on the 
north by the rivers Mur and Drave, in the west by 
the Soca (Isonzo), in the south by the Adriatic, and 
in the east by the Croatian political frontier, which 
is identical with that of the Holy Roman Empire of 
the Middle Ages. From this it may be seen that 
Slovene liguistic territory extends for some distance 
into Italy, and that several counties in western Hun- 
gary are likewise inhabited by Slovenes. 

The home of the Slovenes is rich in beautiful and 
varied scenery. In the north it includes part of the 
Alpine world, with all the solemn grandeur of its 
rugged peaks — a world of wondrous beauty, which 
is reflected in the frank and kindly souls of its in- 
habitants. Farther southward, the Carinthian for- 
est-land with its far-flung range of wooded hills 
gives place, in Styria, to one of the richest wine- 
growing countries in the world. The rhythmic out- 
lines of the vine-clad hills, and the harmonious and 



26 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

picturesque charm of this country are well expressed 
in the cheerful temperament of the Slovenes, and in 
that glad acceptance of life which is one of their 
chief characteristics. In Carniola the towering 
majesty of the Alps stoops to the lovely, hilly coun- 
try that unites Slovene territory with the kindred 
soil of Croatia. Here, in the Bela Kraine, the regu- 
lar outlines and sober green of the sunny vineyards 
bring a touch of subdued color, a note of satisfied 
repose into the tender beauty of the landscape. In 
Southern Carniola, where the mighty amphitheatre 
of the Kras looks down upon Trieste at its feet, the 
Slovene landscape assumes a new and sombre aspect. 
In the Kras country the cheery poverty and sunny 
temperament of the Slovene changes to a graver, al- 
most melancholy mood, and the rugged, unspoilt na- 
ture of the country seems reflected in the equally 
rugged simplicity of the minds of the natives. The 
rocky soil of the Kras hides a strange dark world of 
giant caves, full of weird shapes and fantastic out- 
lines. From the roof of this world of subterranean 
marvels the eye travels over a boundless horizon to 
the blue distance of the Adriatic. Down there on 
the coast, where capital and labor are bestirring 
themselves in one of the world's great seaport towns, 
Slovenedom breathes the crisp, salt air of the sea; 
and under that invigorating touch our people are 
concentrating all their strength in the hope that they 
may yet be united with their brother Jugoslavs, and 
in union with them win their rightful place among 
the nations. 



POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE LANDS 27 

Towards the west the Karst descends to the Vi- 
pava Valley, beautiful under a southern sun, and 
rich in fruit-gardens and vineyards. These lead 
into Gorica, the most western of the Jugoslav lands, 
and the varied beauty of the landscape cannot fail 
to charm the traveller. Here lies the heart of the 
Slovene South, here under the glowing sun of 
Gorica, in the vineyards whose southern slopes mark 
the Italo-Slovene linguistic frontier, and from 
whose ridge is visible the first silvery glimpse of the 
sea, and here Slovene energy and Slovene patriot- 
ism were most highly developed. 

It is only natural that this country, so near to the 
very heart of Europe, should have been felt by Ger- 
manism as a formidable obstacle on the road to the 
south and the east. A strong Slovene element is 
quite equal to the task of shutting off Germany from 
the Adriatic. Pan-Germanism conceived it to be 
one of its first national duties to break down the 
Slovene barrier in order to occupy the hinterland of 
Trieste. It should never be forgotten that Bis- 
marck called Trieste "the point of the German 
sword." Nowhere does the German desire to de- 
stroy the independence of the smaller nationalities 
appear so openly as in these lands between the Alps 
and the Adriatic. The position of the Slovene 
country is analogous to that of Switzerland, and, 
like Switzerland, it is surrounded by countries and 
races of different languages. When the Great 
powers of Europe proclaimed the neutrality of 



28 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Switzerland, they did so because they considered an 
independent Switzerland essential to the welfare of 
Europe. Perhaps Europe will some day discover 
that it would greatly assist the cause of peace, and 
indeed fulfill one of the pre-conditions of peace, if 
the Slovene countries were definitely placed beyond 
the reach of German ambitions, and accorded unity 
with Jugoslavia. 

The Slovene question is a European question. In 
olden times this country was the great highway be- 
tween north and south, a land where north and south 
met and blended in quite a special fashion. Here, 
at the junction of three great, distinct civilizations, 
the German, the Italian, and the Jugoslav, the Great 
Powers ought to create civic liberty, and the possi- 
bility of free, untrammelled development in the fu- 
ture. Romans, Goths, Byzantines, Slavs, and Ger- 
mans have for centuries contended for this strip of 
land, but none have been able to retain their hold on 
it, until the Habsburgs succeeded in incorporating it 
for centuries in their agglomeration of States. But 
this is the age of nationalism. The highest power 
is no longer vested in dynasties, but in the nations, 
whose fate is bound up with the fate of the land, 
and the Slovens also must be accorded the right of 
deciding their own fate, and of crying "Halt!" to 
the aggressive schemes of Germany and Austria. 



Ill 

THE MOST WESTERN BRANCH OF THE 
JUGOSLAVS AND ITS NEIGHBOURS. 

1. 

THE relations of a small nation to several 
greater ones which are threatening its exist- 
ence is not an altogether commonplace sub- 
ject for study. The Slovenes had in turn to fight 
against the Lombards, the Friulians, the Germans, 
the Avars and the Magyars. Indeed it is a marvel 
that the outpost of the Jugoslav world still survives 
in view of its advanced and extremely precarious 
geographical position. The present world-war is 
the final episode in a struggle that has gone on for 
nearly thirteen centuries. On the side of the Slo- 
venes, the war has been mainly waged on the defen- 
sive. They are not, and never were an aggressive 
people, but only wish to defend the heritage of their 
fathers. But the sturdiness of their attitude of 
pure defence is a remarkable phenomenon in history. 
It cannot be sufficiently insisted upon that the 
Slovenes are not a separate Slav nation, but that 
from the dawn of their history they have shared a 
continuous territorial block with the Serbs and 
Croats and have freely intermingled with them. 
One of the most striking proofs of this is the fact 
that the heart of Carantania was occupied by the so- 

29 



30 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

called Croatian clan. But the racial unity of the 
Jugoslavs is also recognized in various ancient docu- 
ments of importance. Pope Pius II (vEneas Sil- 
vius) was fully aware of the national integrity of 
the various offshoots of the race. He called them 
by the one name "Schiavi" but remarks, that "this 
people" also goes by the name of Bosnians, Dal- 
matians, Croats, Istrians, Carnians. 1 The same va- 
riety of names is applied to the Jugoslavs of to-day. 
Pope Pius explains that the true frontier of this 
homogeneous people is denned by the Timavus at 
Monfalcone, which is the racial boundary of the 
Jugoslavs to this day. For him Istria is a Slav 
land, and one of the chapters of his book is called 
"De Istria hodie Schlavonia dicta." He points out 
that the people of Istria are of Slav origin and that 
only in the coast towns are the Slav and Italian lan- 
guages both in use. 

A generation later Herberstein, the great diplo- 
mat and traveller expressed the same view in his 
book "Rerum moscovitariam commentarii," which 
was published about the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. An identical Slav idiom was spoken by a na- 
tion variously called Bosnians, Croats and Istrians 
on the Adriatic Coast and the mainland as far as 
Forum Julii (Cividale) ; and Carnians, Carniolians 
and Carinthians where they lived round about Graz 
and all along the river Mur down to the Danube. 



1 Pii II, Pont. IV, Asiac Europeae elegantiss descriptio, 1531. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 31 

northern Adriatic littoral and the country between 
the Adriatic and Cividale were considered Slav in 
the days of the Renaissance, as well as the strip be- 
tween the Mur and the Danube. In fact the famous 
corridor of to-morrow the link between Czechs and 
Jugoslavs was by Herberstein declared to be Slav. 

With the Lombards the Slovenes are linked by 
most venerable mediaeval traditions. The Lombard 
realm had three capitals, viz : Beneventum, Spoleto 
and Cividale. A modern visitor to the last-named 
town still receives the impression of having come to 
a mediaeval Lombard city. It was here that the 
joint Lombard and Slovene life developed. To pro- 
vide a correct definition of the relations between 
the Lombards and Slovenes necessitates a few re- 
marks concerning the foundation of the Lombard 
(or Langobard) empire. The Lombards did not 
conquer Italy single-handed, but with the help of the 
tribes of the Gepidae, the Suevi, the Saxons and 
finally the Slovenes, who all eventually came in for 
a share in the spoils. The Lombards did not at- 
tempt to exclude their allies from a share in their 
newly-won power, and although they established 
Lombard law, Lombards and allies were both equal 
before the law. The "Edictum Rothari," the Lom- 
bard code of law was not intended to establish the 
supremacy of the Lombards themselves over their 
allies, but on the contrary, it was devised — so we 
are told — in consideration of "the constant oppres- 
sion suffered by the poor," and the wrong endured 



32 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Herberstein was very well acquainted with this part 
of the world, and his testimony proves that all the 
by the weaker, and was intended to protect all 
dwellers within the Lombard realm, whether Lom- 
bards by race or belonging to allied tribes. C. 
Hegel is quite right when he says that the unity of 
the Lombard army and Empire consisted far more 
in the exclusive predominance of Lombard law, than 
in any racial homogeneity. The non-Lombard 
tribes were quietly absorbed in this Imperial unit. 
They fought loyally by the side of the Lombards, 
who were too astute to treat them on a footing of 
absolute equality. The result was that these auxil- 
iaries — warrior settlers in a foreign land, cut off 
from the bulk of their race — became denationalized 
and identified themselves with the Lombards, and 
the rest of the native population. 2 

It was different with the Slovenes. The Lom- 
bard Empire bordered on Carantania. Doubtless 
many of the Slovene auxiliaries were assimilated by 
the Lombards, but there was a constant flow of mi- 
gration which caused the Slovenes to retain posses- 
sion for centuries of the part of the country which 
they had conquered jointly with the Lombards and 
their Allies. The numerous Slovene place-names 
found between the Soca and the Tagliamento prove 
that the Slovenes were not as readily absorbed either 
by the Lombards or by the Romance population as 

2 Hegel: Geschichte der Stadteverfassung von Italien. 
1847. p. 495- 



WESTERN BEANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 33 

were the other allied tribes. The typically Slav 
place-names all along the Tagliamento prove that in 
the Middle Ages it was this river that formed the 
racial frontier of the Slavs. 

It is very likely that the Slav aristocracy of Friuli, 
which is referred to in mediaeval records was a crea- 
tion of the Lombard Empire. We read e. g. of one 
Fraslaw (Brazlaw) of Maruzzo (Moravca). The 
names of the noble and of his fief are both typically 
Slav. Fraslaw was a kinsman of the Count Pala- 
tine Chazilo, whose castle was near Mosnica, the 
Italian Moggio, on the Bela canal. 3 He owned all 
the hill country in the Bela valley, above and oppo- 
site Mosnica as well as a strip of land on the Soca 
at Bovec. 

Careful historic research would doubtless add 
considerably to our store of knowledge of the rela- 
tions between Lombards and Slovenes. Considera- 
ble Lombard settlements existed in Friuli until the 
eleventh century and a few Germanic communities 
survived in Northern Italy as the sole relics of the 
one-time conquerors. But of the Allies of the Lom- 
bards, the Slovenes alone survived in considerable 
numbers. They gave their names to the mountains, 
rivers and villages, and these names remain the in- 
delible proof of an ancient history. 

3 Zahn: Friaulische Studien, Archiv. fur Oesterreichische 
Geschichte, 1879. 



34 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

2. 

The formation of a special Italian nationality by 
uniting all who shared the same civilization and 
literature by the tie of the common language as well 
is a comparatively recent development. The Slo- 
vene literary records preserved from the ninth cen- 
tury are drawn up in practically the same language 
as is spoken to-day. No such claim can be estab- 
lished for the inhabitants of Northern Italy or for 
the non-Slav elements of the Illyrian littoral. 

The latter are by no means a homogeneous racial 
element, nor were they one in the early Middle Ages. 
The two principal elements, the sparsely scattered 
Roman citizens and the Ladines, differed radically 
from each other. We refrain from using the at- 
tractive but quite incorrect term of "Latins." 

The Latin character of the Italians is not at all 
based on racial purity. The men who settled as 
colonists in the Adriatic coast towns were not de- 
scendants of Romulus and Remus, any more than a 
German Austrian can claim to be descended from 
Armin the Cheruscan. These colonists represented 
an exceedingly mixed stock, Imperial Rome knew 
nothing of Anglo-Saxon latter-day eugenic theories. 
All the races of the West and East were stirred up 
in this melting-pot of nations. ;We need only con- 
sider the emperors who hailed from the Eastern 
shores of the Adriatic. Their pedigrees would be 
most interesting. The bulk of the Roman urban 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 35 

population on the Adriatic was surely not of purer 
stock than these emperors. 

Especially in later days, the nation of Imperial 
Rome was merely a vast community sharing lan- 
guage, law and institutions but differing in race and 
blood. The State language and the rule of Rome 
moulded it and welded it into one. Just as Austria 
is composed of Czechs, Magyars, Jugoslavs, Ger- 
mans, Italians, so the Roman Empire was a mosaic 
of nations. But there the parallel ends. In the 
Roman Empire, the centralization of power in Rome 
brought about a certain intermingling of the races 
and national sentiment merged in Roman cosmo- 
politanism. The more advanced phase of this so- 
ciological process has been denned by Gobineau as 
follows : "A Gaul of the Province was, if we con- 
sider the matter more closely, a man who had 
neither the manner of an Italian nor that of a Greek, 
nor that of an Asiatic, nor that of a Gaul, but some- 
thing of the manner of all of them together." (Es- 
sai III.) Mommsen gives a vivid picture of this 
crucible of nations. "Italy was full of Greeks, 
Syrians, Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians and Roman 
provincials." Rome itself became a very Babel of 
races. The Graz professor Bidermann, 4 points out 
that even in classical time the true Roman type per- 
sisted only in a few families. He says : "It is a 
purely arbitrary, definition if we call these cosmo- 

4 Bidermann : I<ie Romanen und ihre Verbreitung in Oster- 
reich, 1877. 



36 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

politans 'Romans/ and on the strength of this con- 
nect the Romance peoples of to-day with the Ro- 
mans of classical times." 

Unquestionably in the days of the Lombard con- 
quest the Roman population of North-eastern Italy 
was not very large. As a matter of fact this corner 
of the Peninsula as well as the territory between the 
Tagliamento and the lower Isonzo was occupied by 
the Friulians. These Friulians had their own lan- 
guage and literature which is older than the Italian. 
They preserved their own political mentality, which 
is quite different from the Italian. The bulk of the 
non-Slav population of the county Gorica-Gradiska 
was Friulian and not Italian. Nowadays they are 
represented in the Vienna parliament by their own 
clerical and Austrophile party, which has been the 
leading factor in the political life of those parts. 

Until the complete unification of Italy in 1870, 
statistics always discriminated between Italians and 
Friulians, and there exists an extremely interesting 
ethnological map by Kiepert, which dates from the 
year 1867. On this map the Friulians appear like 
a pad, as it were, — a racial buffer between the Ital- 
ians and Slovenes. 

What is the origin of the Friulians? The lan- 
guage they speak and write to this day is not an 
Italian dialect but a distinct Romance language. 
The distinguished Italian philologist Ascoli pub- 
lished a monograph in 1846, "Sull idioma Friulano 
e sulla sua affinita colla lingua valaca." In this 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 37 

paper he says that there are many French, Provencal 
and Spanish elements in the Friulian language, and 
he concludes : "In my opinion it should be consid- 
ered in every point a sister language of the Rou- 
manian." "But the Friulian tongue also contains 
Celtic elements." 

The true indigenous element in the modern prov- 
ince of Udine and of the present non-Slav region of 
the Littoral are the Friulians. They are a mixture 
of Carnian Celts, Euganians and Venedi. 5 

The Friulians are constituting a distinct linguistic 
and racial unit. The extensive rural districts al- 
ways returned Friulian Nationalists and only the 
urban population, which is largely descended from 
former Venetian settlers, was pro-Italian. 

Both Venetians and Germans colonised the terri- 
tory inhabited by the Slovenes and Friulians. The 
only two native elements in the present county of 
Gorica-Gradiska were in the past, the Slovenes and 
the Friulians. The other two elements, viz : the 
Germans and Italians, settled there much later, espe- 
cially in modern times, and they represent an urban 
element. The case of Trieste is somewhat different, 
as there the Italian element was strong. But never- 
theless the figures given in the municipal register of 
Trieste 6 show that in 1498 the Italians were in a 
very small majority there. 

"Czornig: Das Land Gorz und Gradiska. 1873, p. 54. 
6 Provincial Archives of Ljubljana. Can. et. Urban Lit. 
T.5. 



38 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

It was Cesare Cantu who pointed out that the 
Tagliamento forms the frontier between the Car- 
nians and the Venetians "who differ widely in their 
speech." 7 For this reason the Tagliamento should 
be considered the racial and linguistic boundary, as 
far as Italian unification is concerned. 

During several years preceding the establishment 
of the Italian State there was a strong current of 
opinion against the theory that the Alps and the 
Kras (Carso) are the frontiers between Italy and 
the Slav world. In 1865 Antonelli was compelled 
to contest the theory that the Alps are the natural 
bulwark between Italy and Jugoslavia. According 
to him the Italians cannot defend Venetia 8 if they 
only possess the (Isonzo) line, and he feels called 
upon to censure Italian writers who deny the "Ital- 
ianita" of Gorica-Gradiska, Triests and Istria and 
calls them "shreds and remnants" of Italy (scampoli 
e ritagli d'ltalia) . 9 

So we see that the modern Italian theory of the 
role of the Julian Alps was not universally accepted 
by the Italians in the past any more than it is at the 
present. 

Antonelli however is forced to admit that in 
mediaeval chronicles the Julian Alps are often re- 
ferred to as the Alps of Schlavonia or the Sclavonic 
mountains. 10 



7 Storia degl' Italian!. Vol. IV. 
8 Antonelli: Friuli Orientale, p. 66. 
e Antonelli: Friuli Orientale, p. 66. 
10 Antonelli, Friuli Orientale, 1865. p. 461. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 39 

Italian travellers of the Renaissance period fix the 
frontier between Italy and Jugoslav territory at the 
eastern gates of Cividale. Thus Mario Sanuto 
writes in his "Itinerario" "Beyond the gates of 
Cividale there is the Cosinian, a tributary of the 
Natisone which — ut dicitur — divides Italy from 
Schiavonia — ergo — I was at the extreme limit of 
Italy." Another Italian writer, Luigi da Porto 
states in his letters that the Sclavonic language is 
spoken in one part of the city (borgo murato). 

Italian geographers of the nineteenth century are 
not in complete agreement with regard to the ideas 
generally accepted to-day. Thus Adriano Balbi 
considers the population of Friuli a mixture of 
Italians and Slavs. He declares that Friuli between 
the Tagliamento, Isonzo and Timavo is not at all a 
country with a marked Italian character, and that 
this Italian character is being steadily obliterated by 
the Friulian and Slovene elements. 12 

There is yet another Italian geographer, Mar- 
mocchi, for whom the Soca (Isonzo) constitutes the 
true frontier between Italy and Jugoslavia. 13 It is 
an interesting fact, by the way, that the Italian Ir- 
redentists of the past so often made use of the term 
Jugoslavia. 

It is the Friulians and not the Italians who were 



"Antonelli, Del Friuli, 1873. XXIV. 
12 Antonelli : II Friuli Orientate. Page 615. 
13 Marmocchi: Corso di Geographia universale vol. II. 
i8S3- 



40 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the neighbors of the Slovenes. During the course 
of centuries, the Friulians encroached upon Slav ter- 
ritory and the Slavs were compelled to retreat. 
Both Italians and Germans candidly admit this, we 
must add, however, that we are here quoting the 
opinion of writers of the period before and directly 
after Italian unification. Thus e. g. Bidermann 
speaks of "the expansive force of the Friulian ele- 
ment and mentions that numerous old Slav settle- 
ments in Friuli have become latinised. 14 In the 
neighborhood of Gorica the Romance element only 
began to grow strong in the sixteenth century. 

Lucinico, San Lorenzo di Mossa, Corono, Fratta, 
Medea and Versa all enjoyed the Old-Slav form of 
self-government under a Zupan in the Middle Ages. 
Locnik (Lucinico) became Latinized in the four- 
teenth century, but in 1523 we still find the custom 
of the Pojezde — the entertainment of the judges — 
regularly observed there, and Locnik still had a 
Zupan, one Jurij Kos. 15 

The list of Slovene Zupans is evidence that the 
Slovenes were not immigrants or serfs, but proof 
that they enjoyed their own form of self-govern- 
ment, as the sons of the ancient brothers-in-arms of 
the Lombards. 

The Slovene character of the territory between 
the Tagliamento and the Soca is insisted upon even 

14 Bidermann op. cit. p. 78. 

"State Archives of Carniola, Ljubljana, Vicedom, Acten, 
Carrier. Lit. p. XIII. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 41 

by Antonini, who gives a long list of Slovene place- 
names in this locality, viz: Gorizia, Gradisca and 
Gradiscotta; Gradisca near Spilimbergo, Gradis- 
cutta and Gorizzo near Codroipo; Pocenia, Pri- 
cenico, Pasiano Schiavonesco or Sclabonico; S. 
Maria Sclabonica, Visco, Ivaniz, Versa Sclabonica, 
Sella, Belgrado, Isernico, Salmico, Santa Marizza, 
Samardinchio, Doliuzza, Driolassa, Cornazzai, In- 
tizzo, Cerneglons, Sclaunico, Ginrizza, Lestizza, 
Lonca, Blouzzo, Poceso. 16 

All these are Old Slovene names, representing the 
purest Old Slovene idiom. A few of them have 
been corrupted by the Italians, but anyone conver- 
sant with the Slav languages will recognize the Old 
Slovene origin. These remains of ancient settle- 
ments bear witness to the fact that the Slovenes lost 
ground and the Romance (not the Italian) element 
gained ground. Slavdom has been upon the defen- 
sive here. 

It will surely not be without use or interest to give 
a brief sketch of the national relations of Gorica in 
the past since the age of the Renaissance. Girolamo 
Porzia wrote of the Gorizians in 1567: "As regards 
their food, drink and clothes, the Gorizians are Ger- 
mans. There are three languages spoken generally, 
viz: German, Italian and Slavonic." This means 
that the social customs of Gorica were the same as 
in any other town in the Austrian Empire. But the 



16 Antonini : II Friuli Orientale. P. 84. 



42 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

civilization of Gorica was cosmopolitan, wrongly 
called "German" by Porzia. At the same time he 
explicitly states that the population was a mixed one 
consisting of Germans, Slavs and Italians. In 1564, 
three years before Porzia noted down his observa- 
tions, the Goricians rendered homage to the Arch- 
duke Charles in all three languages. 

That the town of Gorica bore an international 
character in the past, is established beyond doubt. 
The Counts of Gorica were of German origin and 
they brought German craftsmen to the town. The 
feudal system was an essentially German institution. 
German colonists and German speech were imported 
from the north, and Italians and Italian speech from 
the south. The two native elements were the Ro- 
mance Friulians and the Slovenes. In this confu- 
sion the Habsburgs found their chance of German- 
izing the ruling powers. The Italians apparently 
did not show themselves very vigorous champions 
of their language, seeing that Morelli, the Gorizian 
historian, calls German "questa antica nostra fa- 
vella." 17 

Gorica was a frontier province, and the riff-raff 
of the Venetian Republic, escaped convicts, and per- 
sons fearing the law of Venice, found an asylum in 
the country. Free commercial intercourse with 
Venice led to the doubling of the population of 
Gorica, during the course of the seventeenth cen- 



"Morelli : Storia della contea di Gorizia. Vol. III. p. 188. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 43 

tury, but "this new element was Venetian, not Friu- 
lian nor Slovene." 18 

Eventually the Venetian element increased so 
strongly that it became necessary to legislate for the 
preservation of the native population, which was in 
danger of being crowded out by Venetian immi- 
grants. A Government regulation of 1553 made it 
illegal to remove a native tenant from a holding 
which the landlord proposed to give in feud to a 
Venetian. The native population saw a great eco- 
nomic danger in the increasing numbers of the Vene- 
tians. 

But the Venetians had excellent helpers in the 
Jesuits. The latter immigrated from Venice after 
their expulsion by the Government of the Republic, 
and devoted themselves to the education of the 
young. The Jesuits, in fact, became the most for- 
midable promoters of Italian speech and culture in 
Gorica. The Jesuits displayed a similar activity in 
Trieste. 

The Friulians are still treated as a separate na- 
tionality in the census of 1857. The figures for the 
population of Gorica in that year are given as fol- 
lows: Slovenes, 130,748; Friulians, 47,841; Ital- 
ians, 15,134; Germans, 2,150. The Italians were 
found in compact numbers only on the coast; the 
districts of Cormons, Cervignano and Gradisca were 
chiefly Friulians, whereas in Grado and in the dis- 



l8 Cz6rnig: Gorz. p. 934. 



44 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

trict of Monfalcone the Italians were in the ma- 
jority. 

In his book "Die Romanen" Bidermann estimates 
that in 1864 the Friulians in Gorica numbered 11,- 
000, and the Venetians 1,100. Even then, as to-day, 
the dividing line between the various nationalities 
was sharply defined in the country. Slovenes and 
Friulians did not live intermingled. 

The older statistics of Trieste are very instructive. 
Montanelli gives in his work: "Tl movimento 
storico della popolazione di Trieste" (The storical 
movement of the population of Triest), published 
in Triest 1905, the following statistics: In 1735 the 
city had 3,865 inhabitants, in 1775, 10,664, and in 
1825, 40,870 inhabitants. But in the Slovene en- 
virons of Triest was 1735 a population of 3,385 and 
in 1825 of 13,775 inhabitants. Therefore in 1735 
was the following proportion: Inhabitants of the 
city, whose majority was Italian 53.31 per cent., in- 
habitants of the Slovene environs 46.69 per cent. 
The population of the city (sise 5.32 square km.) 
increased through the afflux from the Hinterland, 
but the environs (size 89 square km.) increased only 
in a normal way. In 1869, the city of Trieste had 
70,274 inhabitants. According to Bidermann, only 
50,000 of these were of Italian extraction. The 
population of the suburbs numbered 42.491, only 
15,000 of whom were Italians. The "Ville" of 



"Antonini : Friuli Orientale. p. 353. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 45 

Trieste had a population of 10,333, and only 400 of 
the number were Italian. At this time the preach- 
ing was in Slovene in all churches in the city of 
Trieste except two. The preaching was also exclu- 
sively in Slovene in the parish churches of St. 
Jacob's and the Revoltella Chapel, likewise in the 
suburbs and the "ville." Nevertheless in all ten 
schools the language of instruction was exclusively 
Italian. But this was not sufficient to crush the Slo- 
vene national feeling of the population of Trieste. 

The Venetian Slovenes occupy a curious place in 
Slav philology. Sreznevski, one of the most dis- 
tinguished of the Russian philologists, visited them 
in 1841. He felt as if he were among Russians. 
The local name of the district is Rezija. One of 
the natives said to him : "Rezija and Russia are all 
the same thing." The Russian professor had 
thought of conversing in German, but the native 
said, "We are Russians, why should we speak Ger- 
man?" Kutusov's Cosacks were greeted as brothers 
by these Slovenes during the Napoleonic wars. Pro- 
fessor Sreznevski declares that a Russian could 
not fail to feel at home in the Rezija valley. The 
local topography reminded him of the most famous 
Russian place-names. The natives had a tradition 
that they had come from Russia in the forgotten 
past. They are a brave, self-reliant, but good-na- 
tured race, and they look upon the Italians as for- 

20 Reggersfeld'sche Sammlung, Tergestina fasc 
35. quoted by Bidermann: Die Romanen. 



46 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

eigners. Nevertheless these most western of the 
Slavs are being inevitably denationalized. It is to 
be feared that this process will also mean their moral 
decay. 21 

According to the distinguished Italian Ascoli the 
Venetian Slavs number 40,000. 

Their society is organized on the patriarchal sys- 
tem, and the Old Slav institution of the Zadruga ex- 
isted among them until recently. They still dance 
an old Slav dance, called "la schiava" by the Italians 
and well-known also in Russia. 

Their lanugage is one of the most interesting of 
the Slav dialects, indeed the Polish scholar Baudoin 
de Courtenay devoted his life to the study of the lan- 
guage of the Venitian Slovenes. 

This off-shoot of our race has preserved very valu- 
able Slav traditions, and no wonder! The Glago- 
lica, the oldest Slav form of writing, the elder sister 
and rival of the Cyrilian or Russian characters was 
still in use among them in the fourteenth century. 22 

3. 

To give a sketch of German-Slovene relations in 
the past is by no means easy. The whole history of 
the Slovenes is nothing but one never-ending battle 
with the Germans. 

In German hero tales we hear of the struggle be- 



21 Sreznevski. The Slavs of Furlana. Zapiski imp. Akad. 
nauk. 1881. 
"Truberjer Zbornik, p. XXVII. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 47 

tween the Slovenes and the Bavarians. Poetry has 
woven charming fancies around the themes of bat- 
tle, treasure and death. The first of all these battles 
to be recorded in history was that on the field of 
fToblach, the watershed between the Adriatic and 
the Black Sea. Here rises the Adige, and also the 
Drava, the great contributor of the Sava. It is 
the classical battleground between West and East. 

The Slovenes, although admirable warriors and 
inspired by the ideals of true democracy, were not 
able to withstand the onslaught of Germanism. 

After the first defeat of the defenders of Slovene 
national independence in the latter half of the eighth 
century, the Germans at once tried to exploit their 
victory economically. The Slovenes were typical 
Slavs and their social structure was not based on a 
stubborn individualism. It was the clan, the family 
which was the economic unit. They were Socialists 
in the true sense of the word and lived in communi- 
ties of economically and politically free men. But 
their vast territory was only sparsely populated. 
Once the Germnas had made themselves masters, 
they had an excellent weapon to hand. They col- 
onized the lands which the Slovenes had failed to 
occupy, especially beside the Danube and on the ex- 
treme Western frontier, and introduced an entirely 
new social system. German noblemen ruled their 
estates according to the feudal system with the ab- 
solute power of the lord of the manor. Of course 
labor was required. The Slovene freeman was too 



48 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

proud to take service under the German lord, and so, 
by introducing German laborers, the Germans inci- 
dentally advanced their political aim. The German 
settlers were to Germanize the territories beside the 
Danube and the Drave. The subtle methods of Ger- 
man colonization were the reason why the Slovenes 
gradually lost Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg, 
the Tyrol, Northern Styria and northern Carinthia. 

This system of colonization was not really a proof 
of the economic superiority of the intruders. The 
Slovenes were in no way inferior as a race to the 
Bavarian invaders. A German authority, V. Kamel, 
says that the Germans colonized a country inhabited 
by an agricultural people, of settled habits, to whom 
they are not greatly superior. 

It is pretty well established that in the days before 
Charlemagne the Slovene lands were far more civil- 
ized than the northern Slav lands, viz: Prussia, 
Silesia and the lands beside the Laba (Elbe) whither 
the Germans really came as the more highly civilized 
people, according to the modern Germans. That the 
Slovene lands were well cultivated is proved e. g. by 
the fact that viticulture flourished at an exceedingly 
early age. Slovene vineyards in the Wachau are 
mentioned in 830; near Tullen in 859; at Krk in 
Carinthia in 864; in the Labudska Dolina (Carin- 
thia) in 888; on the river Sala in modern Hungary 
in 868, and near Ptuj in Styria in 89 1. 23 Slovene 
vintagers gathered in the vintage beside the Danube 
and the Drave eleven centuries ago. 

29 Ibid. p. 285. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 49 

It was not at all an easy matter to destroy Slovene 
national life. In the days of Charlemagne the old 
Slovene territory was still intact. With patience 
and perseverance the German colonists gradually 
gained ground. The struggle lasted a full century. 
By inter-marriage and by political pressure the na- 
tive Slovene nobility became absorbed by the Ger- 
man ruling caste. The Slovene freeman was turned 
into a serf, dependent upon his German lord. 

Yet the Slovenes resisted tenaciously. The Ger- 
man, Kamel says : "If within fifty years the resist- 
ance of the Saxons, who had a political and religious 
support in their Scandinavian Kinsmen, was broken 
by the Franks, how was it possible for the Slovenes 
to hold out? 24 

The Germans had the wisdom to leave Slovene 
local government untouched. Slovene local rule 
persisted for a long time. There were Slovene 
knezi in Pannonia till the later Middle Ages. But 
the object in preserving this petty nobility was to 
make it easier for the Germans to reduce the Slo- 
venes to servitude. 

The story of the German penetration of the Slo- 
vene lands is not the story of an heroic conquest but 
of the economic encroachment of the great land- 
owner upon a land of small freeholders. The old- 
est German colony in the old Slovene territory was 
on the lower Ips river. The Erlaf Valley was still 
reported to be inhabited by Slovenes in 832. 
24 Kamel : Op. cit. 196. 



50 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

The famous monastery of Melk was an old Slo- 
vene settlement. The name was originally Metlika. 

The Field of Tullen became a very door to admit 
the German invader. Carantania proved far less 
accessible for the Germans, and there they contented 
themselves with only founding a few settlements. 26 
In earlier times there were only a few German col- 
onists in the Enns valley. In 860, there was only 
one German colony in the whole of northern and 
central Styria, viz: the town of Prukka (Bruck); 
all the rest of the country was Slav. The upper 
valley of the Drave was Germanized earlier, and the 
monastery of Innachen in the Puster (Pusta) Val- 
ley had been an independent centre of German col- 
onization even since 816 (Kammer). Thus the 
Slovene territory dwindled gradually and German 
colonists paved the way for the advent of the rapa- 
cious Swiss Habsburg, who was, centuries later, to 
forge those very lands into the oldest autocracy in 
Europe. 

Ignominious servitude was the fate of the Slo- 
venes under the Habsburgs. But the day is not far 
off when the words of Preseren, the greatest of the 
Jugoslav lyric poets, will be fulfilled. 

There will we find the way, where their sons 
Shall freely choose their faith and law. 

This is the way to free Jugoslavia. 
But Preseren's hero, Crtomir is not only a patriot, 
but a humanitarian. He said : 



25 Vide Kamel, who gives a lucid account of this colonization. 



"WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 51 

All men are brothers, brothers are all nations. 
Unquestionably the sons of Crtomir, in free union 
with all Jugoslavia, will help to realize this greatest 
blessing of all. 

4. 

The Old Slovene commonwealth comprised the 
whole territory to the south and west of the Danube, 
which means that about one fourth of modern Hun- 
gary was Slovene. As the Carantanian Slovenes 
had to fight with the Germans, so the Pannonian 
Slovenes were beset by the Magyars. But the 
struggle against the Magyars was not quite so hard. 
The Pannonian State, beside the Blatno jezero 
(Lake of Balaton) survived for centuries after the 
Carantanian had lost its independence. 

The immediate cause of the Magyar invasion of 
Central Europe must be sought in the victories of 
the Bulgarians, who slew Magyar men, women and 
children and expelled them from their home in the 
Balkans. The Magyars were a savage people, of 
unprepossessing appearance. We will not investi- 
gate here whether they imported their famous con- 
stitution under their saddles, but we know that they 
possessed no civilization of any kind. In 905 the 
Moravian empire was destroyed by the Magyars, 
and this was also the downfall of the Pannonian 
principality, the important nucleus of Slovene state 
life. 



52 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

The struggle between the Slovenes and the Mag- 
yars was a long tragedy. The ultimate object of 
the Magyars was wholly to absorb the highly civil- 
ized Slovenes. The great influence of Slovene civil- 
ization on Magyar development is freely admitted 
even by Magyar historians. From their ancient 
centre between the River Szala and Pecuh (Pecs) 
the Slovenes exercised their civilizing influence and, 
according to Hunfalvy, 26 it was here that the Mag- 
yar Kingdom was born. 

The development of Magyar state life cannot be 
explained except by the fact that the Slovenes amal- 
gamated with the Magyars and imparted their civil- 
ization to them. The result of this fusion was a 
new nation, quite different from the ancient Asiatic 
nomads. But it retained the Magyar name, just as 
the Slavs of the lower Danube accepted the Bulgar 
name. Only in this case the Slovenes lost their lan- 
guage also, both as a vehicle of literature and of or- 
dinary intercourse. But as the Slovenes represented 
the stronger element as regards civilization, the new 
nation was compelled to adopt many Slovene words, 
which have been carefully traced and collated by 
Miklosic. 

Before the fall of Slovene Pannonia, the town of 
Blatnograd (Moosburg) was the great centre of 
Slovene civilization. It was the capital of Pribina 
and of Kocel, the friend and patron of the Slav apos- 
tle Method. Here a Slav national Church was 



28 Hunfalvy. Ethnographic p. 181. 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 53 

founded and, but for the Magyar invasion of Pan- 
nonia, this National Church would have availed to 
uproot the German influence in ecclesiastic and social 
life, and so saved the freedom of Carantania. But 
the onslaught of the Magyar barbarians in the be- 
ginning of the ninth century brought all these hopes 
to nothing. 

Nevertheless the Magyars received Christianity at 
the hands of the Slovene priests. The most impor- 
tant ecclesiastical terms such as Christian, pope, 
bishop, cross, crown, baptize, saint, hell, etc., in the 
Magyar tongue are of Slovene origin. 

Nor were the Magyars able to find words in their 
Asiatic language to express the ideas connected with 
State life. Almost all words connected with law, 
and political organization are Slovene. The Mag- 
yar nobleman attends the dvor (court), where the 
court officials all bear Slovene titles. Slovene ter- 
minology prevails in the Government boards. The 
terminology of the courts is largely Slovene. The 
Magyar word szabodsag is nothing but the Slovene 
sloboda — freedom. The expressions Zupan, knez, 
were derived by the Magyar from the Slovenes. 
But the rest of the terminology of political life was 
derived by the Magyars from Europe through the 
Slovenes, witness the expressions emperor, king. 

We assume the Magyars to have been a warrior 
people; yet they borrowed all their military terms 
from the Slovene tongue, even the words signifying 
war, weapons, flag, equipment. 



54 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

That the Slovenes were the instructors of the 
Magyars in industry, agriculture and art, is frankly 
admitted by Magyar historians (Cf. Hunfalvy). 

Almost all agricultural terms are Slovene. All 
the parts of the Magyar plough have Slovene desig- 
nations. The Magyar ox eats Slovene seno (hay) 
from the Slovene manger (jasli). The Magyar 
horse is shod with Slovene podkova, wears the Slo- 
vene zubadlo (bit) and is harnessed to a Slovene 
cart or sleigh. 

The Magyar has taken his weights and measures 
over from the Slovene merchant. That the mines 
of the country were first exploited by Slavs is proved 
by the fact that the Magyar names for minerals are 
all of Slovene origin. 

Magyar names for professions are nearly all taken 
from the Slovene. Thus smith — kovacs, miller — 
Molnar, butcher — meszar, etc. It shows that the 
Magyar civilization is of Slovene origin. The Mag- 
yar language has not a word for labor. The word 
for it is munka, the Slovene muka. 

But the most important proof of the supremacy 
of Old Slovene civilization is to be found in the 
Magyar home. Otto von Freising wrote in the 
twelfth century that the Magyars spent the summer 
and autumn in tents and the winter in miserable 
wicker-work huts. The Slovene had already for 
centuries dwelt in properly constructed houses, and 
so it is not at all strange that the most important 
Magyar terms relating to the house should be Slo- 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 55 

vene. To this day the Magyar lives under the Slo- 
vene streha, walks upon the Slovene pod, and sleeps 
in the Slovene perine (pillows). 

As it was the Slovene Samaritan who clothed the 
Magyar savage, so the most important terms relat- 
ing to clothes are likewise Slovene. Moreover the 
Magyar drinks Slovene brandy, beer and wine from 
a Slovene casa or Cubora. The Magyar gambles 
with Slovene dice (Kocki) and enjoys Slovene 
music. The institutions of family life were copied 
from the Slovenes, hence the terms denoting wife, 
brother, sister and the people connected with the 
wedding ceremony are Slovene in the Magyar 
tongue. 

Magyar religious, political and social life is alto- 
gether based on Slovene civilization. That the 
world has hitherto been ignorant of this fact, is only 
one more curious proof of the general lack of knowl- 
edge with regard to the making of nations. 

Kocel's State, Slovene Pannonia, disappeared, and 
the present Slovene populations of the counties of 
Vasa and Szala are only the poor relics of a mighty 
civilization in the past, to which the Magyars owe 
the beginnings of their national life. It will be no 
more than justice from the higher humanitarian 
point of view, if the statesmen who will reconstruct 
the map of Europe do not forget the none too nu- 
merous descendants of the Pannonian Slovenes. 

5. 

The Slovenes are Jugoslavs. Their fate is in- 
extricably bound up with that of all other Jugoslavs, 



56 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

and there can be no future for them apart from the 
rest of their race. It is not easy to find a parallel 
to the precise relationship between the Slovene and 
the rest of the Jugoslavs. The population of the 
British Isles affords no suitable comparison, as the 
difference of race and language between the Scotch, 
Welsh, Irish, and English is considerable, and even 
the dialects spoken in various parts of England 
differ far more than does the Slovene from Croatian 
or Serbian. Perhaps the linguistic and national 
conditions in Italy offer the best comparison. If 
the Tuscan speech had not been adopted as the Ital- 
ian literary language, and the Tuscans were in the 
habit of writing in their dialect, the Venetians in 
theirs, and the Piedmontese in theirs — that would 
give a fair idea of the difference between Croatian 
and Slovene. Only a Slovene would understand a 
Croat, a Serb, or even a Bulgar far more easily than 
a Venetian would a native of Tuscany. Moreover, 
modern Slovene and Croatian have been established 
as literary languages for barely a century, and 
neither tongue can yet be considered stereotyped. It 
certainly seems more than likely that the changes 
following upon the World- War will also affect the 
language of the country. 

Lubor Niederle, the well-known Czech ethnolo- 
gist, maintains that in 1908 the Slovenes numbered 
1,500,000. 

In no Jugoslav country has the struggle between 
Slav and German been contested so fiercely as in the 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 57 

Slovene provinces. German lack of consideration, 
coupled with that brutal disregard of the rights of 
all non-Germans which is so faithfully reflected in 
Germany's foreign policy, have long been experi- 
enced at first hand by the Slovenes. The struggle for 
the land between Drava and Mura is a scene in the 
World's Tragedy, and it will be played out in the 
World-War. In view of their historical signifi- 
cance, the story of the Slovenes is well worth con- 
sidering in detail. 

The Austrian census affords a glaring example of 
Austrian double-dealing. The Slavs form the over- 
whelming majority of the population, and ought as 
such, to be the governing party in the State. There- 
fore the Government seeks to minimize their nu- 
merical importance in every possible way, and very 
often by underhand expedients. It is impossible, 
even by the help of "cooked" statistics, to prove that 
the Slavs are in a minority in the Dual Monarchy. 
So the Government has tried to break the force of 
the Slav majority by classifying the population in 
such a way as to give the impression that even the 
purely Slav districts contain many German inhabi- 
tants, and the census is falsified accordingly. 

In order to establish the nationality of an Aus- 
trian citizen, he is not asked by the State to what 
language he habitually uses. Now, most of the dis- 
tricts which Germanism is trying to annihilate are 
multilingual, and the Slav, whether in business or as 
a simple citizen, usually can speak several languages. 



58 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

The census in many ways resembles an election. 
There is the same canvassing, the same coercion on 
the part of the employer and those in a position of 
social advantage towards the employee and the social 
inferior. There are no voting papers, but the entry 
in the census paper is of more importance than a 
ballot. At the time of the census-taking hundreds 
and thousands of Slavs are coerced into recording 
their "language habitually used" in deference to the 
demands of their superiors, usually Germans or Ital- 
ians. This falsification is facilitated by the expres- 
sion "language commonly used in intercourse," as it 
is an easy matter to convince the Slav laborer that 
his command and use of the German tongue estab- 
lishes a certain claim. In a multilingual state an 
expedient of this kind obviously works out to the 
advantage of the party which is able to apply social 
pressure, and in the Austrian Slav provinces it is 
the Germans and Italians who benefit by it. 

According to the Austrian census there are only 
1,252,940 Slovenes, but it is obvious that this state- 
ment does not tally with the facts, and that, owing 
to the methods employed during the census-taking 
as well as to deliberate falsifications, the number of 
Slovenes actually living in Austria is grossly under- 
stated. 

There are 491,000 Slovenes in Carniola, 410,000 
in Styria, 120,000 in Carinthia, and 437,385 Slo- 
venes and Croats in the Austro-Hungarian Littoral. 
In Carniola and the Littoral the Slovenes are in ab- 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 59 

solute numerical majority, but in the other prov- 
inces, although forming a compact population, they 
are in actual, but large minority. In Styria 29 per 
cent, of the population are Slovenes, and 71 per cent. 
Germans, in Carinthia 22 per cent, are Slovenes, and 
78 per cent. Germans. The following statistics will 
show the force of the German thrust towards the 
Adriatic. 

In 1851 the Slovene population of Styria 
amounted to 36 per cent., in 1910 only to 29.37 per 
cent. In Carinthia the percentage has declined even 
more, and during the latter sixties it fell from 29.99 
per cent, to 21.23 per cent. ( Not counting the 
Croats, the Slovene population in the Austro-Illyrian 
Littoral declined from 39.07 per cent, to 32.22 per 
cent, during the years between 1857 and 1910. 
Surely these figures are enough to refute the Italian 
argument that the Slav element in the Adriatic prov- 
inces is encouraged by the Austrian Government. 

Within the last fifty years the number of Slovenes 
in the Austro-Illyrian Littoral has not only not in- 
creased, but actually declined by 7 per cent. Only 
in Carniola the Slovene element has increased from 
88 per cent, in 1857 to 94 per cent, in 1910. In this 
province, therefore, the Germans are in a minority 
of 6 per cent, against 94 per cent. Slovenes. Like 
Prague in Bohemia, Ljubljana (Laibach), the capi- 
tal of Carniola, was only very recently captured by 
the Slavs. In 1881 Ljubljana elected its first Slo- 
vene mayor. 



60 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

In a State in which various nationalities compete 
with each other, it is not only important to establish 
the actual number of each nationality, but also its 
rate of increase. In this respect the Slovenes have 
to enter a decided deficit. The Slovene rate of in- 
crease falls short of the average in the Empire. The 
average increase of the population between 1900 
and 1910 amounted to 9.44 per cent. But during 
this period the Slovene population only increased by 
1.37 per cent., the Germans by 8.38 per cent, and 
the Italians by 7.67 per cent. These figures speak 
volumes. The whole national tragedy of the Slo- 
venes is expressed in these dry statistics, and they 
prove the appalling pressure exercised by Pan- 
Germanism upon the Slovenes better than reams of 
writing. As the Slovene population has not in- 
creased at the same rate as the State average, it 
stands to reason that within the last fifty years one- 
third of the Slovene population has been absorbed 
by their foreign neighbors. 

The decline of the Slovene population is not due 
either to a low birth-rate or to racial degeneration. 
It is accounted for chiefly by forcible denationaliza- 
tion and emigration. 

Slovene women are more prolific than German or 
Italian women. Slovene family life is healthy and 
natural, and to this day they are a plain, rustic, to- 
tally unspoilt and undegenerate people, and certainly 
the healthiest race in Austria. Their percentage of 
adults between fifty and seventy and of septuagena- 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 61 

rians is second only to that of the Italians (in Aus- 
tria) , which is very slightly higher. 

The Slovene emigrant goes either overseas or to 
work in the industrial districts of Prussia, or, nearer 
home, in Styria. Already the immigrant Slovene 
working population has distinctly altered the indus- 
trial districts of Upper and Lower Styria. Out of 
one hundred persons resident in Graz (Styria) but 
domiciled elsewhere, seventy-five come from Ger- 
man parishes and twenty-five from Slovene. In the 
industrial districts of Upper Styria, 75 per cent, of 
the immigrant population come from German par- 
ishes, and 24 per cent, from Slovene. In the Graz- 
Koflach district the percentage is 81 from German 
parishes as against 19 from Slovene. These figures 
show that the influx of Slovene labor from the al- 
most purely agricultural Slovene rural districts is 
very considerable ; but as this Slovene element soon 
becomes entirely Germanized in the German indus- 
trial districts, these emigrants are lost to their own 
people. 

Certain towns in Lower Styria, such as Maribor, 
would at once lose their "German" character if the 
Germanization of the Slovene immigrants were to 
cease. If all coming from Slovene parishes were 
designated as Slovenes (as indeed they are by birth) 
and added to the Slovenes already domiciled in the 
following "German" towns, we should find that in 
Celje (Cilli, "the most southern of German towns") 
the Slovene population amounts to 69.63 per cent., 



62 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

in Maribor to 71.03 per cent., and in Celovec to 
31.78 per cent. Even this calculation is in so far 
unjust to the Slovenes, as the number of old-estab- 
lished families, originally of Slovene extraction, is 
very considerable in all these towns. In 1857 Ce- 
lovec (Klagenfurt) had 6,000 Slovene inhabitants 
as against 3,419 Germans. Moreover, an analysis 
of the political conditions will clearly prove that the 
growth of the German element in the towns is due 
wholly and solely to systematic support from the 
Government. If the Slovene element were propor- 
tionately represented among the State officials, and 
in the local government, the German element would 
soon disappear automatically in the towns. At 
present it is being artificially fostered by the Gov- 
ernment, as it would otherwise be a mere question 
of time until it was entirely Slovenized by the influx 
from the rural districts. Other powerful factors 
contributing to the relative decrease in the Slovene 
population are undoubtedly the process of forcible 
denationalization through the schools, the Govern- 
ment system, military service, and the power of Ger- 
man capital, all of which militate strongly against 
the Slovenes in their heroic struggle for existence. 
The Slovenes lost their independence in the days 
of Charlemagne. On the other hand, it is an over- 
whelming proof of their national vitality that their 
national consciousness has never perished, and that, 
in spite of a thousand years of foreign domination, 
they could begin afresh to cultivate their native Ian- 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 63 

guage, culture, and politics during the nineteenth 
century. 

The modern reorganization of national life among 
the Serbs and Bulgars is really of more recent date 
than that of the Slovenes, whose culture has always 
belonged rather to the west. European civilization 
never encountered the same difficulties among the 
Western Jugoslavs as in the Balkan States. Yet 
the Slovenes have one political feature in common 
with the Serbs and Bulgars. Owing to the extreme 
newness and lack of tradition in their political life, 
their party differences have been imbued with a 
spirit of vehement intolerance, as yet untouched by 
the mellowing sense of political moderation which 
pursues its aim with calm but courageous determina- 
tion. In politics, the Slovenes have not yet achieved 
the necessary equanimity. This lack of tradition 
makes itself felt everywhere among the Slovenes. 
They are, essentially, a sturdy, healthy race of peas- 
ants, and even their town-bred middle classes plain- 
ly show their descent. Their life is fresh and natu- 
ral and free from contamination by hyper-refined 
decadence, and in all classes the lack of intellectual 
tradition is largely compensated for by a keen appe- 
tite for learning and education. There are no sharp 
class distinctions, and prevailing conditions point 
rather to the formation of a State on strictly demo- 
cratic lines. In the absence of well-defined classes, 
all social strata are equally engaged in the struggle 
for national defence and political and social solU 



64 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

darky. It must be admitted that recently a lower 
middle class has sprung up, which has unconsciously 
begun to ape German class distinctions. But this 
element is too weak seriously to endanger the in- 
trinsically democratic character of the Slovenes, and 
it will disappear with the introduction of a truly 
democratic form of government. 

The native aristocracy of the Slovene has long 
been extinct. Within recent years the Austrian 
Government has conferred patents of nobility on 
various higher officials, but this titled class possesses 
no prestige with the people, who are inclined to sus- 
pect its members of being tools of Germanism. The 
true leaders of the nation are the "intellectuals," the 
professional classes derived from the native peasant 
stock, and who are energetic representatives of dem- 
ocratic ideals. Several old Slovene families have 
been settled for generations in towns, but this native 
urban population has already proved itself a power- 
ful factor in the national struggle. 

The democratic tendency of the Slovenes shows 
itself particularly in this, that education and political 
talent are considered qualifications for social leader- 
ship before either birth or wealth. In the Alpine 
districts the Slovene peasant farmer is inclined to be 
conservative, but among the foot-hills of the Kras, 
and especially in the south, he is decidedly progres- 
sive, and takes a strong interest in education and in- 
dustry. The Styrian peasant is docile, law-abiding, 
and industrious, the Carniolian is by nature an ex- 



WESTERN BRANCH OF THE JUGOSLAVS 65 

cellent man of business, and all Slovenes make splen- 
did soldiers. The natural good health of the race 
has been undermined in the north by drink and 
Teutonic corruption, and emigration has also helped 
to lower the national health standard, but these in- 
fluences will disappear under altered conditions. 
The Slovene nation is sound at the core, and not yet 
in danger of racial degeneration. 

Political pressure has caused the Slovenes to be- 
come perhaps the strongest, the most energetic, and 
the most order-loving among the Slavs, except the 
Czechs, whose talent for organization and solidarity 
reappears in the Slovenes coupled with the more 
lovable characteristics of the true Slav. Beyond all 
doubt the Slovenes, in connection with the other 
Jugoslavs, may confidently look forward to a great 
future. They will provide an element of discipline, 
economy, and order in the new State. The, sympa- 
thetic mixture of Slav and Western culture has had 
a beneficial influence on the character of the Slo- 
venes. The warm and profound sincerity of their 
feelings comes out strongly in their lyric poetry, in 
which the Slovene unquestionably excels the rest of 
the Jugoslavs. 

Strong in the feeling of youth, and with the 
health-giving breath of the Alps and the bracing 
wind of the Kras in their lungs, the Slovenes are 
boldly and resolutely setting forth to win the right 
of liberty and independence in union with all Jugo- 
slavs. 



iy 

ORIGIN OF SLOVENE MEDLEVAL STRUG- 
GLE FOR INDEPENDENCE AGAINST 
THE GERMANS AND THE HISTOR- 
ICAL DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE SLOVENES 

1. 

IN the days when the decision of the world's fu- 
ture hangs in the balance, a survey of the past 
of the Slav race is perhaps opportune. It is to- 
day, especially for the western and southern part of 
Slavdom, a supreme struggle. The victory of the 
Allies means for the Czechs and Jugoslavs the resur- 
rection of their ancient, destroyed state life. 

Look at a historical map of Europe during the 
eighth and ninth centuries. There we see Slavdom 
in all its mighty expansion. It was established be- 
side the Adriatic, the yEgean, the Baltic and the 
Black Sea, from the Laba (Elbe) and Inn to the 
Upper Don and Dnieper. The dream of Pan-Ger- 
manism was realized here, but in a Slav sense. 
From the Baltic to the Adriatic the Slavs occupied 
one continuous territory. Here was the raw ma- 
terial for a great nation of world importance. 

But the old Slavs were too greatly democratic to 
be strong state-builders. Together with the Croats 
and Serbs, the Slovenes likewise came to the Jugo- 
slav territory of to-day in the sixth century. The 

66 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 67 

most exposed to both Germans and Lombards, the 
Slovenes created the first Slav State. 

Old Slovene Carantania, whose nucleus was the 
present Germanized Carinthia, was a large country. 
Italy was its neighbor in the south. Bajuvaria 
(Modern Bavaria) in the West, the empire of the 
Avars in the East. During the seventh century the 
Latins of Italy were a conquered race, and the Lom- 
bards were its masters. With these and with their 
eastern neighbors, the Avars, the old Slovenes did 
not live in a state of war, but repeatedly concluded 
alliances with them. But with the Germans they 
lived in eternal warfare. 

Carantania, the earliest Slav State, was designed 
by fate to checkmate German influence in Central 
Europe. All conditions favored the development 
of a strong, virile, commonwealth, and it succeeded 
in becoming a Slav power in Europe already in the 
early Middle Ages. By the destruction of this com- 
monwealth Germany incalculably retarded Slav evo- 
lution. Five centuries later the centre of gravity of 
Slav power had been transferred to the lands of a 
Muscovite autocracy, where there was no chance for 
free evolution as implied by the ideals of Anglo- 
Saxon civilization. 

But their ancient defeat could not make the old- 
est opponents of Germany incapable of rendering 
service to the common cause. Slav national life, 
customs, traditions, boundless, irreconcilable op- 
position to German world-rule found a grave in 



68 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Carantania ; but the fundamental instinct for libera- 
tion from a foreign German yoke could not be ban- 
ished from the hearts of men. There are feelings, 
ideas, which cannot be buried, and the day must in- 
evitably dawn, when early mediaeval Carantanian 
freedom will celebrate its resurrection. Its modern 
continuation will be Jugoslavia, the united country 
of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The resurrec- 
tion will not only be an act of justice but also a vital 
necessity for the Powers who are to-day fighting 
against Germany. There could not be a more op- 
portune moment for a contemplation of the earliest 
Slav state, a state the downfall of which was in the 
nature of a catastrophe for the evolution of free in- 
stitutions in Europe. 

To the spectator the dawn of the history of the 
Slav race is shrouded in darkness. The Slavs had 
no opportunity of becoming the subjects for Roman 
classical historiography. Tacitus wrote his "Ger- 
mania," but no Roman ever wrote a "Slavia." 

Another empire, the Byzantine, was compelled to 
consider what policy would serve best in dealing 
with the vanguard of the Slav multitudes. The 
writings of the Byzantine emperors are full of ref- 
erences to the Slavs : The rulers of Byzance were 
shrewd observers, keen compilers of information 
concerning neighboring nations, and they combined 
statecraft with wise intelligence. Every student of 
Slav history knows the value of the writings of Con- 
stantine Porphyrogenitos for the early history of 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 69 

their state life. But other imperial authors likewise 
drew a sympathetic picture of the Slav love of free- 
dom. Thus the Emperor Maurikios wrote that the 
Slavs are "free and not at all lightly inclined to tol- 
erate servitude and foreign rule." They refused to 
be slaves of the state, and were sadly given to quar- 
reling among themselves. And the hearts of these 
Emperors, who were accustomed to servile courtiers 
and creatures without a sense of freedom, went out 
to these sturdy, frank barbarians, who valued free- 
dom above all the treasures of this earth. There is 
strange irony in these sketches of the free life of a 
primitive race, so absolutely foreign to the refine- 
ment of Byzantine hyper-civilization. An un- 
bounded, sturdy love of freedom was the old Slav 
heritage. The only possible form of a common- 
wealth for them was a democracy, their instinct for 
freedom was the most important trait of their na- 
tional psychology. They realized that state cen- 
tralization means the death of civil freedom ; and so 
they did not incline toward a unification of their 
small peasant states. Their independence first met 
its doom in the west. Their primitive states could 
not compete with the more perfect state organiza- 
tions of the Germans and Franks. 

Their strong love of independence entailed a lack 
of cohesion, of unity. Discord and dissensions have 
always been political characteristics of the Slavs. 
The Emperor Maurikios was shrewd enough to take 
advantage of this Slav weakness. "Seeing that 



70 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

there are so many chiefs at the head of the Slavonic 
peoples, and these do not agree together, it will be 
advisable to attract them by fair means or foul, and 
first of all those who are nearest; because it would 
be a calamity if they were to unite as enemies against 
us under one common rule." Thus by fostering 
this tendency to disunion created by an exaggerated 
love of freedom, the Franks, Germans and Byzan- 
tines easily destroyed the germs of Slav state inde- 
pendence. 

The Slavs were never a hard people. They are 
like the wood of the linden, their national tree. 
They were industrious and good-natured. Agri- 
culture was their favorite pursuit, and it was from 
them that their eastern neighbors learned to lead set- 
tled industrious lives. 

They were a sociable people, hospitality was a 
duty. To insult a guest was a crime, and all guests 
were under the protection of the god Radgost. 

The mythology of the Old Slovenes was a poetic 
and symbolical nature worship. The supreme god 
was Bog, the lord of nature, the creator of heaven 
and earth, and light. Svarog was the god of the 
sea. Triglav, the three-headed deity, ruled air, 
earth and water. A beautiful deep symbolism, this. 
The highest mountains in all the Slav world are in 
the Slovene lands on the frontier between Italian 
and German territory, and the highest of these the 
Old Slovenes called the Triglav. 

The Triglav in Carniola represents a fine concep- 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 71 

tion of the boundaries of nature and the race. From 
this Slav Olympus to the Olympus of the Greeks ex- 
tends the one and indivisible Jugoslav nation, even 
where it has lived for full fourteen hundred years. 

But their divinities were not only personifications 
of nature's forces. There was Rovo, the god of 
Justice, Dazbog, the god of wealth, there was De- 
vana, goddess of fruitfulness. As the Slavs were a 
cheerful people, who took pleasure in life and so- 
ciability, they had their god of hospitality, Radgost, 
and of joy, Kurent. 

Ziva was the goddess of life and love, the Slav 
Venus. Her place of worship was on the beautiful 
island in the middle of the lake of Bled in Carniola. 
Ziva was also the goddess of youth. 

"To whom are sent up the sighs of youth 
To whom, fair maidens offer up 
Their laughter and their tears." 

The Rojenice were goddesses of fate. 

The woods and groves were full of "vile" and 
"rusalke," divine maidens who ruled the rivers, 
mountains and forests. 

The old Slovenes were a nation of singers and 
musicians, and also of poets. Safarik, the Slav 
archaeologist, was right when he said "Wherever 
there is a Slav woman, there are songs. House and 
yard, mountain, plain, meadow and forest, garden 
and vineyard, they fill them all with their songs. . . . 
We may affirm without exaggeration that in no 
other nation does natural poetry exist in such abund- 



72 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

ance, purity, sincerity and warmth of sentiment." 
(History of Slav languages and literature.) 

It is a commonplace to assert the Slavs were a 
peaceful people. This view has often been contra- 
dicted by realistic historians, and is not absolutely 
true in its widest meaning. The Slavs were by no 
means all alike in this respect. It is said that the 
Czechs adopted Christianity without opposition. 
The Slovenes on the other hand waged a life and 
death struggle against Christianity. Speaking gen- 
erally, the Slavs of the border region were fierce 
fighters and not at all gentle and peaceful. The 
most warlike of their tribes, steeled by constant con- 
flict with the Germans, were placed by fate at the 
extreme west of the Slav territory. 

2. 

During the first centuries of their historic exist- 
ence the Slovenes possessed the domestic and politi- 
cal institutions common to all the Slavs. The fam- 
ily was the universal unit. They were monogamous, 
only their princes were permitted more than one 
wife, as was also the custom of the Frankish kings. 

One result of monogamy was the high social posi- 
tion and respect accorded to women. Men and 
women were as nearly as possible on a footing of 
equality. Women could be heads of the communi- 
ties, called Zadruga, they could be rulers and war- 
riors. 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 73 

Nevertheless family life was highly developed. 
Matrimonial relations were pure, the women were 
strongly attached to their husbands. 

It is impossible to understand Old Slavonic politi- 
cal life, unless we duly take into consideration the 
influence of the family on public affairs. The fam- 
ily was a powerful factor in the primitive state. It 
was ruled by the prerogative of age, but democratic 
equality was nevertheless preserved. The family 
protected all its members, and carefully watched 
over its own interests. Of the Slavs, the Slovenes, 
under the influence of German individualism, were 
the first to escape from the trammels of the family 
regime. But the farther away from the West, the 
stronger we find the bond of family solidarity among 
the Jugoslavs to this day. 

The clan is the nucleus of the state life. The ter- 
ritory of a clan is called the Zupa, the shire. The 
chief of the clan is the Zupan. The dignity of 
Zupan is usually hereditary in the most influential 
family of the clan. In the heart of the Zupa is the 
Grad, the castle, the seat of the Zupan. Round the 
Grad settled the population of a tiny town. Grad, 
Gradec, Gradisce are among the most common topo- 
graphical names on the borders of Slav and German 
territory. Not only in provinces that are German- 
ized to-day, but also on the borders of the Taglia- 
mento, do we meet with this truly Slav appellation. 

But the individual shires were too weak. They 
could not withstand the onslaught of organized na- 



74 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

tions like the Franks and Germans. So a number 
of Zupe allied themselves together in one great shire, 
the velika zupanija, whose head was the veliki- 
zupan. For warfare a special military chief was 
elected, the vojvode. 

It is impossible to rightly understand Old Slav 
historic life, unless the federative idea is taken duly 
into consideration. It seems as if the old Slovenes 
had been particularly fond of creating vague and 
weak federal governments. These confederacies, 
created for war purposes were quickly formed, but 
they dissolved with great rapidity at the first shock. 
Only men of exceptional ability, such as King Samo 
of Bohemia and Ljudevit Posavski were able to 
carry on a successful defence against foreign powers 
under this political system. But the Slavs not only 
sought to save their political independence by con- 
federacies among themselves. They frequently al- 
lied themselves to their non-Slav neighbors, the 
Lombards, Avars and Huns. The history of the 
early centuries of Slav independence is chiefly a his- 
tory of more or less fortunate alliances. But in al- 
most all cases the end for the western Slavs was 
subjugation, political death. 

By coming in contact with the Germans, Franks 
and Lombards, the Western Slavs were compelled to 
organize their commonwealth on a rather more se- 
cure foundation. It is only natural, that the first 
Slav State of a Western character should have 
arisen on the extreme west of Slav territory, in Slo- 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 75 

vene Carinthia, with its capital of Krnigrad on the 
famous Gosposvetsko Polje. We will make it our 
task to trace the old Slovene state independence, so 
very interesting in so many respects as revealing to 
us the lights and shadows of old Slovene democracy. 



3 a 



Linhart, an "eighteenth century Slovene historian, 
says with regard to the beginnings of Slovene state 
life: "But their ('the Slovenes') names, dwellings 
and acts lie hidden in the chaos of history. They 
kept no records, on the other hand the Franks and 
the Lombards were not interested in the history of 
a nation over which they did not rule." The Slo- 
venes have no native historian of the early centuries 
of their life as a nation. We have to gather all our 
knowledge of their fate from Frankish and Lom- 
bard historians, who do not do justice to the Slo- 
venes. The learned and noble Lombard, Paulus 
Diaconus, often mentions the Slovenes. Of course 
his Lombard sentiments frequently prevent a correct 
appreciation of Slovene historic development. But 
for all that his history of the Lombards contains a 
touching tale of how a Slovene woman saved the 
life of one of his ancestors. The learned Einhard- 
ast, the chronicler of Charlemagne was well ac- 
quainted with the outstanding facts of Carinthian 
or Slovene history. But our most important source 
is the "Conversio Bagovariorum et Carantanorum," 



76 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the work of a partisan and champion of German ec- 
clesiastical policy. 

Doutbless the archives of the old Lombard capital 
Cividale — Cedad in Slovene — still contain most 
valuable documents relating to Slovene history and 
civilization in the Middle Ages. But unfortunately 
the modern Slovene fight for existence has made it 
impossible for the Slovene nation that its scholars 
should have a chance of studying their own native 
history. 

But no historian of modern times has given so 
warlike a picture of the Old Slovenes as did Megi- 
serus, the Austrian Court annalist in his "Annates 
Carinthise." It is extremely interesting to note how* 
deeply this German court historian was impressed 
by early mediaeval Slovene history. It proves that 
in those days the Slovenes were looked upon by the 
Germans as an ancient nation with an illustrious 
past. 

Pannonia was far removed from the attacks of 
the Bajuvarians and Franks. It was easier there 
for the Slovenes to maintain their national existence. 
And as this country became the centre of a strong 
Slav national life, Magyar civilization grew up 
largely under the auspices of this early Slav civiliza- 
tion. In the days when Carantania was already 
under the heel of the German domination, the Pan- 
nonian Slovenes still enjoyed political independence. 

The Slovenes came to their present home at the 
close of the sixth century. They settled together 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 77 

with the Croats and Serbs, themselves occupying the 
north-west and extreme west of the Jugoslav terri- 
tory of to-day. It is an absolute fact that the three 
branches of the Jugoslav nation did not arrive sepa- 
rately in their new country. The mere existence of 
the Clan Chroati (Croats, Croatians) on the Gos- 
posvetsko Field, the most ancient territory of the 
Slovenes indicates a certain intermingling of the 
three branches of the nation from the earliest times. 

Ancient Slovene territory included almost one- 
half of the present Empire of Austria. 

Old Carantania was divided into twelve shires, 
Upper Carinthia, Krka (Gurcatal), the Croatian 
shire (Chrovati), Lungau (Salzburg), Enns (from 
the Mandlingspass, as it is now called, to the Hohen- 
wart), Ljubno (Leobnergau), Murica (Murzgau), 
Pagus Zitilinesfeld (on the river Drava), and Louna 
(Lavinja). All but one of these counties can be 
definitely identified to this day. 

The political centre of Carantania was old Carin- 
thia which included the present day Carinthia and 
the county of Celje in Styria. On the frontiers 
were the Carantanian March (Upper and Middle 
Styria), the Carniolian March and the Eastern 
March (Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg and 
the Eastern Tyrol). To-day only the names of the 
mountains and villages recall the Slav past in a Ger- 
manized land. Many Slovene topographical names 
have been preserved in Upper Styria. The Sem- 
mering, on the frontiers of Styria and Lower Aus- 



78 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

tria takes its name from the Slav word smreka 
(common spruce). 

The principal mountains of German Styria all 
bear Old Slovene names. 

It is superfluous to state that in the past all Carin- 
thia was Slovene. The Slovenes lived at the foot 
of the Gross Glockner, called Veliki Klek by the Slo- 
venes. The Lungau in Salzburg was Slovene land. 
Slovenes lived by the rivers Taya and Enns, and 
there were Slovene settlements in the close vicinity 
of Ischl. Gastein was inhabited by Slovenes and 
there were Slovene villages under the Schafberg. 
All the country south of the Danube was Slovene. 
The neighborhood of Aussee was Slovene, Melk 
has a purely Slovene name, and there was a consid- 
erable Slovene population in the vicinity of St. 
Polten. 

In the north, German territory bordered upon the 
Slovene lands at the eastern extremity of the Tullner 
Becken near Stockerau ; in the east the frontier was 
formed by the ridge of the Wienerwald. 

Slovene Pannonia which educated the Magyar to 
domesticated life was another highly civilized early 
mediaeval State. Carniola was by the old chroni- 
clers called patria Slavorum, the country of the 
Slavs. Not the Soca, but the Tagliamento was the 
true racial western frontier of the Slovenes in the 
days of the Lombards. 

Even the Slovenes living in their habitations of 
to-day were compelled to fight against German am- 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 79 

bitious aggression. They were attacked by Tessel 
(Tassilo), Duke of Bavaria, but the Slovenes de- 
feated the Germans in 595 on the field of Toblach. 
It was the first beginning of the Germano-Slav war- 
fare. 

But the Slovenes had not only to contend with 
German foes in the west. In Istria they were men- 
aced by the Byzantines and in Italy by the Lom- 
bards. 

The relations between the Slovenes and Lombards 
offer one of the most striking problems of the Slav 
past. Slovene was the tongue spoken at the Lom- 
bard Court in Ci vitas Austria (Cividale) and Lom- 
bard princes composed poems in Slovene. 

We will presently endeavor to reconstruct the po- 
litical relationship between the Slovenes and the 
Lombards. Only a few historic episodes should be 
mentioned here. 

The Slovenes frequently invaded Italy. They 
fought not only on the Venetian plains, but Slovene 
forces appear in widely different parts of the Penin- 
sula, taking part in the various struggles for domi- 
nation. The dissensions between the various claim- 
ants of the crown were the cause of this repeated 
interference. During the course of their relations 
with the Lombards the Slovenes were, as a rule, on 
excellent terms with them. It was with the help of 
the Slovenes that the Lombards took Mantua and 
Cremona from the Romans. 



80 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

In 716, Pemmo, a Lombard duke, appears in Slo- 
vene territory. He fought against the Slovenes at 
Lovrana but was defeated and made peace. Later 
on circumstances compelled him to take refuge in 
the Slav land of Carniola. Although guilty of an 
armed rebellion against the then King of the Lom- 
bards he was eventually forgiven through the inter- 
cession of his son Ratekis. 

Benevent was also the scene of Slovene warlike 
exploits. According to Gaulus Diaconus, Ako, King 
of the Lombards was defeated and slain there by the 
Slovenes in 642. After the defeat, the Lombard 
prince Raduald conducted the negotiations for peace 
in the Slovene tongue. 

Lombard history contains frequent allusions to 
the prowess of the Slovenes. They were by no 
means a feeble tribe, but on the contrary their 
strength was so highly esteemed that the Lombards 
frequently sought their alliance. 

The Croats and Slovenes were not only brave 
warriors on land, but intrepid seamen as well. In 
the early Middle Ages, the Croats boasted a navy of 
eighty "saginke," each manned by twenty fighting 
men, and a hundred "condurne," each carrying a 
hundred fighters. Their power at sea was consid- 
ered so redoubtable, that the Pope enjoined upon 
them not to employ their ships for aggressive pur- 
poses, but only for the defence of their own country 
(Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, de Adm. Imperio). 

Far more momentous, and very much more tragic 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 81 

for the nation was the struggle against the Germans. 
At the beginning of the Carantanian State epoch, 
the Slavs had a very great king, Samo, who welded 
Slavonic Central Europe into an Empire to be a bul- 
wark against the rising Germanic power. He ruled 
from 623 to 658. He was no legendary hero of 
Frankish descent, as some historians aver, but ac- 
cording to all reliable sources a great sovereign and 
Empire-builder. 

Prior to Samo's election, Carantania seems to 
have been a federation of commonwealths without a 
king of any kind. But in the meantime a new and 
powerful enemy had arisen in the Bavarians, and the 
Slovenes found themselves compelled to choose a 
strong ruler. Samo, the descendant of an ancient 
Slovene clan in Carinthia was, according to the Aus- 
trian court chronicler Megiser, elected to put the 
country into a state of stronger defence. First of 
all he delivered his people from the yoke of the 
Avars. But soon he was at war with the Germans 
and the Carantanian Slavs once more proved them- 
selves an intrepid warrior people. In their fight 
against Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, they were assisted 
by other Slovene tribes from Dalmatia, Liburnia 
and Istria. 

Tassilo, the Bavarian, who posed as the champion 
of Christianity, but had really no nobler aim than 
to deprive the Carantanians of their independence, 
calls them "ein greulich wild Volck." Brave they 
were indeed, and fearless, with nothing of the spirit 



82 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of poor, down-trodden slaves. The Slovenes knew 
full well that their existence was at stake. An old 
chronicler tells us that "the Bavarians have the in- 
tention of annihilating the Slovenes, who are fight- 
ing manfully in defence of their beloved homes, 
their lives, their wives and children, their posses- 
sions and their honor." Samo had an army of fifty 
thousand horse and foot, and the Bavarians num- 
bered seventy thousand, according to Megiser in his 
"Annates Carinthise." 

In the Tyrol it came to a battle in which the 
Bavarians were totally defeated and compelled to 
withdraw. Samo had won the victory over German 
aggression. He was equally successful in his next 
campaign against the allied Frahks and Bavarians. 
He gloriously defeated the enemies of Slovene inde- 
pendence in the great battle of Vogastograd. 

In the days of Samo, Carantania was a fair and 
prosperous land. The Carantanian chronicler says 
that in those days Dalmatia and Carinthia greatly 
excelled many lands in wealth and power. And the 
men who owned this land were a proud, enterprising 
and truculent race. Addressing his men before the 
battle for national independence against Valhun, a 
duke who had fallen under German and Roman in- 
fluence, Aurelius, a Carantanian noble, spoke as fol- 
lows : "We are descended from the proudest people 
that ever walked this earth, Slovenes, Illyrians !" 

The Slovenes were no ready converts to Chris- 
tianity. Tenaciously the Slovenes defended their 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 83 

ancient faith and their gods, the symbol of their na- 
tional independence. It was a sanguinary fight, 
without quarter. 

German influence in the Slovene lands became 
predominant owing to a curious concatenation of 
circumstances. The Carantanian Duke Borut, be- 
ing threatened by an invasion of the Avars, appealed 
for help to the Bavarians; for in contrast to the 
Avars the Slovenes felt more in sympathy with the 
.West and Western civilization, and it was in the 
mind of Borut to save this character of his country. 
But it was done at the cost of almost too great a 
sacrifice. This alliance marked the beginning of 
Slovene political servitude. Gorazd, who ascended 
the throne in 750, and Hotimir who did so in 753, 
were sent as hostages to the Bavarian court, where 
they were baptized in Regensburg. Hotimir, a god- 
fearing, pious and humane ruler, introduced Chris- 
tianity in Carantania. 

The Slovenes were not called truculent for noth- 
ing by their Lombard neighbors. Indeed, their 
dukes declared that it was stupid to relinquish what 
one had won by the sword, and the Slovenes were 
never inclined to leave a country they had conquered. 
But the Lombards, too, were ambitious, and fre- 
quently invaded Carniola, where they met with igno- 
minious defeat. At last Rachesius, a Lombard duke 
conceived the plan of completely crushing the Slo- 
venes this "rude and savage race," and to that end 
made war upon Hotimir. But Hotimir was not 



84 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

only pious and wise, but also an admirable warrior. 
He inflicted a decisive defeat upon the Lombards 
and Rachesius himself was slain. Politically, Hoti- 
mir's reign meant the peaceful introduction of 
Christianity in the Slovene lands. Needless to say 
the proud and independent Slovene mind was deeply 
hostile to this hated, new religion which was in those 
days merely the instrument of Germanic conquest. 
Especially the nobility fought with the greatest te- 
nacity against the introduction of Christianity, for 
which reason they were eventually exterminated. 
The Slovene struggle against Christianity as 
preached by German statecraft is a blood-stained 
and tragic chapter in early Slav history. 

Presern, the Slovene poet, has characterized the 
struggle in the following pithy lines : 

Blood that in Carinthia and Carniola 
Was shed might have filled a lake. 
Robbing in the fields in the struggle defeated 
I,ay the captains gay and their warriors. 

Six months did the river of blood soak the ground, 
Thus did Slovene slay the Sloven, his brother ! 

Hotimir was succeeded by his son Valhun, who 
lacked his father's wisdom, and was a fanatical sup- 
porter of the German influence. His policy drove 
the people to rebellion in defence of Slovene inde- 
pendence under the leadership of three chiefs, named 
Droh, Vrie and Droslar. Droh was the Slovene 
high priest and a very skilful leader. A long and 
fierce struggle ensued between the friends of the 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 85 

Germans and the champions of Slovene independ- 
ence and nationality. The love of independence 
and freedom is deeply rooted in the heart of the Slo- 
venes, and it was a formidable task to crush it. 
Droh and his rebel army made a stand near Metlika, 
where they were defeated by Duke Valhun. The 
Duke's treatment of his discomfited enemies was 
neither Christian nor humane. Megiser tells us 
that Valhun caused Droh's hands to be cut off, and 
after that the ears, nose and feet of the rebel leader 
and his supporters. This barbarous mutilation and 
further indignities and tortures inflicted upon the 
rebel chieftains was, so we are told, "in accordance 
with the ancient German usage and law." 

The Slovene national commonwealth practically 
came to an end about 772. The pressure of the ris- 
ing German power was too strong. At the same 
time it would be wrong to assert that the sturdy na- 
tional spirit of the Slovenes was crushed. They re- 
peatedly rebelled, and endeavored to re-establish 
their independence with the help of the southern 
brothers of their race. 

The reason for the political breakdown of the 
Slovenes must not be sought in an inherent inferior- 
ity to the Germans. But the latter had a powerful 
weapon in their monopoly of the spread of Chris- 
tianity. 

The Christian priests before the time of Cyril and 
Method were all foreigners. A wave of Slav Chris- 
tian sentiment arose later on when the brothers Cyril 



86 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

and Method preached the Gospel in Pannonia in the 
native Slovene tongue. But by that time it was too 
late to found a National Slav Church in Carantania 
and Pannonia. 

The reign of Charlemagne meant the downfall 
and decay of all the Slav States. The only truly 
great episode in Slav history during the first half of 
the ninth century is the struggle of the heroic Lju- 
devit Posavski for the political independence of the 
Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Ljudevit (818-822) 
succeeded in uniting all the Jugoslavs to make a 
strong united stand against the foreign German in- 
fluence in the Slav lands of the Save, Drava, and 
around the Adriatic. 

As a matter of fact, in the frontier lands the 
Church was not always hostile to the Slovenes. 
Thus Fortunatus, Patriarch of Grado was the 
staunch friend of Ljudevit Posavski and even sup- 
plied Ljudevit with Italian engineers to build his 
fortresses. For this reason he was denounced by a 
priest to the Emperor, as we are told in the annals 
of Einhardus, the biographer of Charlemagne. 

Ljudevit's capital was Sisak in Croatia. He be- 
gan his rebellion in 819 with the help of Slavs from 
the Timok, the Carantanian Slovenes as far west as 
the Soca (Isonzo) and the Pannonian Slavs. His 
united forces truly represented Jugoslavdom. But 
internal dissensions, and most especially the treach- 
ery of a Dalmatian chief undid all the results of 
Ljudevit's brilliant successes in the field. He was 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 87 

compelled to fly to the Serbs where he was slain by 
a kinsman. Thus ended the last prince who ruled 
over the Jugoslavs from the Soca to the Danube and 
the Timok. 

Slovene independent political State life was for- 
mally brought to an end by the treaty of Verdun in 
843. By this treaty Carantania, i. e. the Slovene 
lands, was definitely severed from the rest of the 
Jugoslav territory. Henceforth the frontier of the 
German Empire was set up between the Slovene 
lands and Croatia, whom it has kept apart for more 
than a thousand years. 

When Cyril and Method, the Slav Apostles, came 
to the Slovene lands and preached the gospel in the 
native language of the Pannonian Slavs it was al- 
ready too late. Slovene national independence had 
perished and the forces that were needed to establish 
a National Church had been destroyed. Germanic 
power had gained the victory. Yet in spite of their 
political downfall the Slovene lands remained the 
vanguard of Slav civilization in the west. The ear- 
liest Slav documents and inscriptions were produced 
in these lands in the ninth century, and according to 
the opinion of the greatest philological authorities it 
was the Slovene speech that was adopted as the 
liturgical tongue of the Slav religious world. The 
language in which the Orthodox Church liturgy is 
chanted to-day, is the ancient Slovene idiom. 

These earliest beginnings of Slovene civilization 
were foredoomed because they lacked the support 



88 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of a national State or Church. But for all that it 
was not possible to eradicate the Slav sentiment of 
these earliest opponents of German ascendancy. 
Samo, Droh, Crtomir and Ljudevit fought in the 
early Middle Ages against the very same foe who is 
in our day endangering the peaceful existence of the 
nation. The Slovene champions succumbed, and 
their downfall was not a local disaster, but it de- 
stroyed the balance of power in Central Europe. 



Even in these conflicts of the early Middle Ages 
nothing short of great racial tenacity could have 
withstood the double pressure from the east and 
west. Nevertheless, the Slovenes survived where 
other tribes before them had disappeared, and al- 
though their territory dwindled considerably during 
the course of centuries, they succeeded in preserv- 
ing their national existence. 

During the Middle Ages the Slovenes had a great 
force to contend with, the German Empire. The 
small principalities into which the Slovene Empire 
was broken up succumbed before the weight of the 
German attack. As in every crisis in their existence 
the Slovenes invoked the help of their southern kins- 
men. Under Ljudevit, Prince of Posavia, the 
united Slovenes and Croats fought for Slovene in- 
dependence from Germany, and were defeated. 

The consequences of this defeat were above all 
things of an economic nature. The German sov- 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 89 

ereigns filled the land with German colonists, by 
whom the Upper and Lower Austrias were com- 
pletely Germanized, and even apart from this colon- 
izing policy the German rulers sought in every way 
to restrict the independence of the Slovenes. 

In 952 the Emperor Otto I created the frontier 
province of Great Carantania, which extended from 
the Danube to the Adriatic, and was to protect Ger- 
many and the west against the inroads of the Mag- 
yars. Great Carantania included Carinthia, and the 
adjacent counties of Styria, the Tyrol, Istria, the 
Margravate of Verona, and the Furlana, so that in 
Great Carantania all the Slovenes were practically 
united. About half a century later this whole terri- 
tory was reorganized, and divided into the Carnio- 
lian, Eastern, and Carantanian Marches. 

All this time the Slovene struggle for existence 
continued — a losing fight, it is true, but so stubborn- 
ly contested that it has lasted from the days of 
Charlemagne until the twentieth century. The no- 
bles were the first to succumb and turn their backs 
upon the national cause. 

Within the course of the next few years the peas- 
ants, owing to economically altered conditions and 
changes in the laws relating to land tenure, gradually 
lost their freedom and became serfs to the German 
nobles; in fact, from the time of Otto I until the 
Reformation the Slovenes were slowly being crushed 
out of existence, socially and economically enslaved 
and politically subject to foreign domination. 



90 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Under the House of Babenberg the Ostmark 
(Eastern March), from which Austria derives her 
name, became detached from Carantania. When 
the Babenbergs became extinct, Premysl Ottokar, 
King of Bohemia, sought to emulate the example of 
Samo and to unite the Slavs of the north and south 
in one great Empire. But in 1278 he was defeated 
in the battle of the March f eld and it fell to the 
House of Habsburg to create the Austrian Empire, 
and thus Austria became a German instead of a Slav 
State. 

The division of land according to the feudal sys- 
tem was also introduced to the Slovene lands when 
the Habsburgs took in hand the task of unifying 
them. Styria became subject to them in 1282 di- 
rectly after Ottokar's defeat. Carniola shared this 
fate in 1282, Carinthia in 1335, Istria not till 1374, 
Trieste was united with Austria in 1382, and the 
principality (formerly county) of Gorizia became 
Habsburg property in 1500 with the extinction of 
the line of the Counts of Gorica. 

For some time the Habsburgs had to fear the 
rivalry of the Counts of Celje, whose seat was the 
Castle of Sunek on the Savin j a (Sann), and whose 
ambition always coveted the Jugoslav lands. One 
of them, Count Hermann of Celje, was Ban of 
Croatia, and sister's son to the Bosnian King Stjepan 
Tvrdko II, who bequeathed Bosnia to him. Ulric, 
the last of the Counts of Celje, married a daughter 
of the Serbian King Jurij Brankovic. He was mur- 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 91 

dered in 1456 in Belgrade by the Hungarians, and 
with him perished the Jugoslav ambitions of the 
lords of Celje and their possessions became the prop- 
erty of the Habsburgs. 

It would be wrong, however, to assume that Slo- 
vene speech and political tradition came to a sudden 
end. The legendary King Mathias lived on in the 
hearts of the people as the symbol of Slovene inde- 
pendence, and through the greater part of the Mid- 
dle Ages they possessed a national aristocracy which 
was only very gradually absorbed by the German 
nobility. The records of the thirteenth century 
show a large number of Slovene titled names. ,Till 
the thirteenth century the Slovene tongue possessed 
a legal status, and was spoken by both princes and 
nobles. In 1227 the Minnesinger Ulric von L,ich- 
tenstein greeted the knighthood and nobility of Ca- 
rinthia in Slovene. Slovene was the language used 
in solemn ceremonial of the ducal investiture, and 
Slovene was the language of the Court of Celovec 
and Vienna. 

The Abbot Ivan of Vetrinje, in describing the in- 
vestiture of 1286, relates that when the Duke of 
Carinthia was accused before the Emperor of cer- 
tain offences, he had to conduct his defence in Slo- 
vene, and moreover had to deliver judgment in that 
language before the Emperor. At the time of the 
Turkish wars the approach of the Turks was sig- 
nalled by messages in Slovene, written in Glagolitic 
characters, and called Turski glasi ("Turkish 



92 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

voices"), and the missives convoking the Diet of 
Carniola contain Slovene signatures written in Old 
Slav characters. 

But all this time the Holy Roman Empire of the 
Germans pressed upon the Slovenes with all the 
weight of its huge organization, stifling every pos- 
sibility of further development, confiscating land 
and liberty. And their greatest calamity lay in this, 
that the frontier of the Empire, passing from the 
Quarnero across the Kras to the Drava, constituted 
an insurmountable barrier between them and the 
Jugoslav States, and prevented all political co-opera- 
tion between them and their kinsmen. 

On the other hand, they enjoyed certain advan- 
tages by being united under Habsburg suzerainty in 
the historically and socially homogeneous group of 
provinces corresponding to the former Great Carin- 
thia. The Habsburgs have always recognized the 
indivisibility of Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola, and 
at each redistribution of the lands, these three with 
Gorica and Istria have been grouped together. In 
support of our assertion that the cohesion of these 
lands is based upon historical law no less than upon 
economic expedience, we would refer the reader to 
the expert opinion of Arnold Luschin von Eben- 
greuth, the German nationalist professor of Aus- 
trian Historical Law in Graz, who in his "Grundriss 
der Osterreichischen Reichsgeschichte" makes the 
following statement : "On the other hand, certain 
ancient relations subsisted between the three Alpine 



STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 93 

countries, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, which 
had at one time been included in the Dukedom of 
Carantania, which after the invasion of 1335, re- 
vived speedily owing to a similarity of population 
and economic conditions. In matters of law as well 
as of politics Styria then assumed the leadership of 
the three lands which in the fifteenth century were 
referred to collectively as the lower Inner Lands, 
and subsequently as Inner Austria." 

The great events of history, however, have always 
brought out the solidarity of all the Jugoslavs, not 
excepting the Slovenes. Thus the Turkish wars 
created a powerful bond of union between the Jugo- 
slavs, not merely because of the common danger 
and necessity for defence, but because the Turkish 
invasions drove many of the more southern of the 
Jugoslavs northwards, and these migrations by in- 
termingling the south and north greatly strength- 
ened the sense of racial unity. 

The Reformation reacted greatly upon the Slo- 
venes. It seemed as if the nightmare of centuries 
had come to an end; a free national intellectual life 
began to spring up from the ashes of the past, and 
spiritual freedom quickened the beginnings of a new 
national awakening; but to a pauperized peasantry 
opposed to an estranged aristocracy the economic 
problem of material welfare was of greater impor- 
tance than the spiritual awakening. 

The struggle of the Croat and Slovene peasantry 
for the old pravda (rights) for economic emancipa- 



94 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

tion came to a tragic end, but it was of incalculable 
material and social value. For the first time the 
mass of Croat and Slovene peoples felt the mighty 
bond of common interest, and the effort to obtain 
better conditions became a political necessity. The 
armed crowds, headed by the Croato-Slovene peas- 
ant — King Matija Gubec, demanded, not only an im- 
provement in their economically desperate position, 
but that the common people should have a voice in 
a national government. This Croato-Slovene peas- 
ant-insurrection was stifled in blood. 

After this the national life of the Slovenes sank 
into hopeless apathy. In the seventeenth century 
that great apostle of Germanization, Joseph II, al- 
most succeeded in completing the work of Charle- 
magne. The state strove with increasing persist- 
ency to rob the Slovenes of their national conscious- 
ness. 

In this extremity help came most unexpectedly 
from that titanic war of liberation, the great French 
Revolution. 

The political ideas and theories of the French 
Revolution were of decisive moment for the regen- 
eration of the Slovenes. From secular humiliation, 
social misery, and intellectual backwardness the new 
political idea led the peoples forth to a promised 
land of nationalistic ideals, and no nation benefited 
more by this mighty awakening than the Slovenes, 
who in spite of their wonderful racial tenacity no 
longer had the strength to resist Germanism in its 
new form of absolutism. 



A CHAPTER OF THE OLD SLOVENE 
DEMOCRACY 

THE Slovene Kopitar, one of the founders of 
Slavonic philology, says in one of his writ- 
ings that the Germans of to-day ignore Slo- 
vene nationality, but that Einhardus, the biographer 
of Charlemagne, knew them very well. This is an 
amazing statement, but it only corresponds to the 
truth. The Slovenes were not always a wretched 
peasantry, as they appear during recent centuries. 
In the early Middle Ages they were stout fighters 
for political independence, the first State-builders 
among the Slavs, a stubborn and indomitable nation. 
Only a nation of this kind could have created and 
preserved in the days of its servitude such a marvel 
of political, historical, and democratic consciousness 
as was the installation and homage of the Slovene 
dukes on the Gosposvetsko Plain, near Celovec 
(Klagenfurt) in Carinthia, on the extreme frontier 
of the national territory of modern Slovenia. 

There was in old Carinthia the so-called Croatian 
shire, the pagus Chrovati, inhabited by a clan bear- 
ing the name of Croatians. Here, between the 
Drava and the Krka, was formed the centre of the 
first strong Slavonic commonwealth of a Western 
character. The sixth-century Slavonic settlement 
here on the marches of the Slavonic world was 

95 



96 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

bound to have far-reaching results for Slavonic 
state civilization and evolution. Through their 
contact with the Franks, Bavarians, and Longobards 
the Carinthians became the representatives of a high 
political type. Absolutely right is the assertion of 
a sociological writer, Peisker, who says : 'But they 
found a still harder task to build up their rude free- 
dom into an orderly State. This the Carinthians 
brilliantly performed, remaining in true freedom 
without a nobility for a long time.' This plan be- 
yond the Drava, called by the Slovenes of to-day the 
Gosposvetsko Plain, possesses the most ancient tra- 
ditions of Slavonic freedom. Only in Russian re- 
publican Novgorod has Slovene Carinthia a more 
recent rival. 

Krnskigrad was the capital of free Slovene Carin- 
thia in the early Middle Ages, the nucleus of a great 
Slavonic power in Central Europe, a state which 
would never have permitted the formation of the 
German nation as she appears to-day. But it was 
the misfortune of Carinthia that Christianity was 
the weapon of her foes, and that the Slovenes of 
Carinthia were Christianized by a foreign anti- 
national Church. Had the Carinthian national 
state had the support of a Christian Church of na- 
tional origin the collapse of Slovene political inde- 
pendence would never have occurred. 

Not far from Krnskigrad in the Gosposvetsko 
Polje stands to-day a most ancient church — the 
Gospa Sveta, the Holy Lady. The visitor to this 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 97 

mediaeval church will be struck by the antique aspect 
of this place of worship. Here, if we except the 
Dalmatian coastland, was founded the first bishopric 
in the Jugoslav lands. But the priests came from 
Salzburg; they were Germans and the strongest 
supporters of German statecraft. They were not in 
favor of Slovene freedom and the Slavonic ritual 
introduced in the Church by the two great Slav apos- 
tles, Cyril and Methodius. 

The Slovene sense of political freedom was too 
strong to be suffocated at once. Old Slavonic state 
forms and customs survived the fall of Slovene true 
political independence. It was a struggle of cen- 
turies, fought with tenacity and the passive defence 
so characteristic of the Slavonic race. But the most 
important feature of a strong political symbolism 
was the installation and homage of the Carinthian 
dukes. It is a marvel of political symbolism, this 
ceremony, a true treasury of political and legal ideas. 

There is a record every student of political 
theories ought to know. Bodin, the founder of the 
idea of modern state sovereignty, declares in the 
famous chapter "Sovereignty" in his "Republique," 
"The Carinthian ducal cermeony has no rival in the 
world" ("Six livres de la Republique," Livre I, chap, 
viii.). It is unique as an assertion of the sover- 
eignty of the people in a state ceremony. 

This same opinion is shared by iEneas Silvius, 
Pope Pius II, who, in his "Asiae Europse elegantis- 
sima "descriptio," describes the installation and em- 



98 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

phasizes the fact that no other nation possesses a 
similar example of State symbolism. 

The ceremony took place near Krnskigrad and on 
the Gosposvetsko Plain. It was divided into two 
parts, the installation upon the ducal stone near 
Krnskigrad and the homage before the ducal chair 
on the Gosposvetsko Plain. 

Adjoining Krnskigrad there was a freehold 
owned by a peasant family whose chief had the right 
to introduce the Duke to his sovereign functions. 
He was the Ducal Peasant, an extraordinary at- 
tractive figure in mediaeval constitutional history. 
This ducal peasant was of old Slovene descent; he 

was the representative of the nation in this State 
ceremony. 

On the day of the installation this free peasant 
lolled in a careless attitude upon the stone near the 
Krnskigrad, to await the Duke and his company. 
He wore a grey hat with a grey band, clumsy san- 
dals, a grey shirt buckled with a belt of red, and a 
grey coat such as is worn by the Carinthian peasant. 
He was surrounded by a large crowd. 

The procession arrives: the pages and cross- 
bearers, bishops and priests, men-at-arms and noble- 
men. In this splendid procession walks a man in 
the habit of a Slovene peasant. It is the Duke. 
He had to put off his ducal purple and ermine and 
to appear as a simple peasant before the ducal 
throne, where the Slovene peasant is sitting cross- 
legged, proudly looking the prince in the face as he 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 99 

leads to the stone, where the peasant was seated, a 
dappled horse, lame and blind, and a lean black ox. 
The peasant asked the Duke, "Who is it that draws 
near to me ?" The Count of Gorica, as the Palatine 
of Carinthia, replied in old Slovene language: "It 
is the lord of the land." Again the peasant de- 
manded : "Is he a just judge — one who has the wel- 
fare of the people at heart? Is he a free man? Is 
he a protector of the faith?" After receiving an 
affirmative answer the peasant asked: "For what 
consideration must I resign this seat?" The Count 
of Gorica replied: "The place will be bought for 
sixty penezi. The beasts will be thine. Thou wilt 
receive the Prince's habit, and thy house will not be 
taxed." The peasant then took charge of the ox 
and mare, and withdrew. Then only did the Princ s 
ascend the ducal stone. Still wearing the garb of a 
peasant, he was hailed by the people. Men and 
women, as the "Schwabenspiegel," the German me- 
diaeval legal code, reports, sang old Slovene songs 
around him, giving thanks to God that He had sent 
them a lord to their wish and will. Then the Duke 
was conducted three times around the stone by the 
people. After this the Duke brandished his naked 
sword from the stone. Still garbed as a peasant, he 
had to drink a mouthful of fresh water from the 
Slovene peasant's hat. 

During the installation some of the Gradiniki 
were mowing a meadow, others brandished a torch, 
yet others were saddling and bridling horses. 



100 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

After the installation the Duke, in the midst of 
the procession, repaired to the old Church of Gospa 
Sveta. He was led by the Count of Gorica, who 
was in command of twelve standard-bearers, repre- 
senting the twelve shires of the Slovene lands. The 
Duke, still attired as a Slovene peasant, was anointed 
in the church of Gospa Sveta by the Bishop of Krk. 
After leaving the church of the installation, the 
Duke finally put on his splendid ducal robes. In 
full ducal splendor he attended the coronation ban- 
quet. 

The second part of the ceremony was the homage 
on the Gosposvetsko Plain before the ducal chair. 
In this the Duke, seated in the difcal chair, dis- 
tributed fiefs, and the vassals did homage. The 
ducal chair has two seats. The eastern seat was oc- 
cupied by the Duke, the western by the Count of 
Gorica, each distributing fiefs and receiving homage. 

Amazingly astonishing is the wealth of symbolism 
in political ideas enshrined in this ceremony. The 
sovereignty of the people, distrust of the power of 
the Duke, guarantees against despotism, all are in a 
truly wonderful way embodied in this installation 
ritual. It is like embroidery interwoven with noble 
ornaments and symbols. 

First of all the role of the ducal peasant must be 
considered. Who is he, and what is the meaning of 
his action? The ducal peasant is a freeholder 
whose family at the beginning of the Carinthian 
State occupied a notable position of consequence 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 101 

among its kinsmen and deserved well for its share 
in the introduction of democratic rule. Until the 
Duke is installed, he is the holder of the State power, 
and it is from him that the Duke receives authority 
to rule the State. The nation desires a ruler, or a 
foreign ruler is imposed on it. Nevertheless it 
would fain remind the ruler that the people is the 
source of power. The people as a whole cannot be 
an actor in the ceremony ; it requires a protagonist, 
the ducal peasant, whose ancestors were fighters in 
the early struggle for national freedom. The na- 
tion is democratic, and its representative is a peas- 
ant, but a freeholder. 

In his poem, "Der Pfaff vom Kahlenberg," the 
Austrian statesman and poet, Prince Auersperg 
(better known by his pen-name of Anastasius 
Grun), gave a vivid description of the historic func- 
tion of the ducal peasant. The old goodman says 
to his nephew : 

The warden of its right of old 

This land mine ancient race doth hold; 

The plough hath writ on mead and lea 

Our patent of nobility. 

And by my mouth and by my hand 

Its lord acknowledgeth the land; 

And would the Duke ascend his throne, 

Then to the rugged chair of stone 

One of our house his guide, must be. 27 

The peasant is proud of the fact that his power 



^Translation by F. S. Copeland. 



102 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

is more ancient than the Duke's. He shows his 
rough tally to his nephew, saying : 

This tally with its rude incisions 
Our princely chronicles of State, 
Where briefness doth with clearness vie, 
A dash a prince may signify. 

As the personifier of the people, the peasant is the 
provisional occupant of the ducal stone. The stone 
is the kernel of the land, and whosoever possesses 
it is the rightful holder of the land. 

The Duke must approach the stone in the guise of 
a peasant because he ought to be a democratic ruler. 
The ducal peasant transmits his authority only to a 
man who is his equal, not to his superior. The 
Duke is the ruler elected by the people, which prefers 
a peasant to a nobleman. 

What is the meaning of the mare and the ox! 
which the Duke leads up to the peasant? These 
two beasts are symbols of agriculture. By taking 
with him the mare and the ox, the Duke symboli- 
cally intimates that he will protect agriculture. It 
is a guarantee of material prosperity for the peas- 
antry. The Slovene peasants do not trust the Duke. 
They demand guarantees that he will perform his 
duties of a just ruler. The peasant on the stone asks 
questions as to the methods of his government and 
how they will be carried out. The Duke may be in- 
stalled only if the answers are satisfactory. A con- 
vention is concluded between the peasant and the 
Duke. For his vacation of the chair the peasant re- 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 103 

ceives 60 penezi, he will be the owner of the mare 
and the ox, his freehold will be exempt from taxa- 
tion. Finally, the peasant garb worn by the Duke 
will be given to the ducal peasant as security that the 
Duke will keep his promises. 

The people is the fountain of all State power. 
The people gives its consent to the installation. Re- 
joicing men and women praise the Duke in old Slo- 
vene songs. Slovene is the language of the Caran- 
tanian State; the questions of the peasant, the an- 
swers of the Count of Gorica, and the songs of the 
people are all in the ancient tongue of the Slovenes. 

Before the peasant withdraws, he gives the Duke 
a blow upon the cheek. What means the blow given 
to the Duke in the presence of the people in so 
solemn a moment? There are two explanations. 
According to the Bohemian historian Peisker 
("Aeltere Beziehungen" ) the blow means that the 
ducal peasant retains a certain power over the Duke 
even after the installation. The peasant has the 
right and the duty to proceed against the Duke if he 
fails to fulfill the obligations he has undertaken. As 
the representative of the people, the ducal peasant 
had the right to oppose every unlawful act of the 
ruler. The other explanation by Puntschart, who 
wrote a monograph entitled "Herzogseinsetzung und 
Huldigung in Karnten," is not at all probable. Ac- 
cording to him, it is a kind of accolade ; but first of 
all, the peasant was not a noble, and as a peasant he 
could not bestow knighthood. The Duke, on the 



104 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

other hand, was a noble, and did not require the be- 
stowal of knighthood. 

The true symbolism of the blow is rooted in the 
profoundly democratic sentiments of the nation. 
The blow signifies the right to rebel. If the ruler 
should violate his obligations, the nation is free from 
its allegiance — it no longer has the duty to obey. A 
revolutionary element is also enshrined in the fol- 
lowing symbolistic acts. 

During the installation, the Gradiniki mow an- 
other man's meadows near the ducal stone. A sec- 
ond freehold peasant brandishes the incendiary 
torch, and a third 

Lays the saddle on the courser 
To leave no hostage for the raid. 
The law of lordless days departs 
O'ermastered by a stronger hand. 

Such is the vision of the poet. In case the Duke 
refuses to give guarantees, the peace will be broken 
and civil wars destroy the land. But these three 
acts may also have another meaning. They may 
signify in a veiled form the right to rebel. If the 
Duke will not govern according to the law, then the 
nation has a right to dethrone the Duke who despises 
the law. 

Before the Duke leaves the stone near the Krn- 
skigrad he has to perform an important act, com- 
mon to coronation ceremonies in general — e. g. to 
the Hungarian coronation. He has to brandish his 
naked sword towards North, South, East, and West, 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 105 

and thus symbolically to take possession of the land 
and promise to be a strong defender of the common- 
wealth. The Duke performs this action in the garb 
of a peasant. The people is inexorable. The Duke 
must be humbled yet again. He must drink fresh 
water from the grey Slovene peasant hat as an ad- 
monition that his power is of peasant origin and that 
his life ought to be simple and modest like that of a 
Slovene peasant. 

This unusual wealth of symbols ought to be classi- 
fied. They are of an economic, democratic, and na- 
tional character. The ceremony does not take place 
in a church or palace, but under the open sky. The 
plain is surrounded by high Alpine mountains, and 
upon everything there is a touch of Alpine and rural 
life. A comparison with the Swiss Landgemeinde 
— the meetings of the small Alpine democracies — 
were perhaps not inappropriate. The ceremony is 
essentially a rustic one. The peasant is the centre 
of the ceremony. He is the representative of the 
people, which is agricultural, not of the town. The 
Duke has to lead the two symbolical animals, the 
mare and the ox. The tradition of the two animals 
means a guarantee to the people that it will be able 
to pursue its agricultural labors in peace. The mare 
and the ox are not the best of their kind; they are 
emaciated by hard work in the fields, and represent 
the drudgery of agriculture. 

The Slovene peasant of this ceremony is full of 
common sense and native shrewdness. He is sus- 



106 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

picious, and jealously guards his constitutional guar- 
antees. Indeed stronger guarantees could not easily 
be invented. (Peisker.) These peasants were 
strong, proud men, loving liberty. The mediaeval 
Germans in the "Schwabenspiegel" characterized 
Slovene peasantry thus: "They do not accept the 
rule of nobility or power, but only honesty and 
truth." It was a very well-known fact in those days 
that there was no people more honest or more re- 
ligious than the Carinthians. But they were also a 
proud stock of men. There was a saying, "He does 
not take off his hat to the German Emperor : he is 
a Slovene peasant." This saying is the embodiment 
of a legal custom. The Ducal Peasant had the 
right to wear his hat at the Emperor's Court. 

This ceremony is a true quintessence of demo- 
cratic ideas. The sovereignty of the nation is ex- 
pressed so strongly, so emphatically, and by such 
admirable symbols, that we can hardly find the 
democratic idea more clearly expressed in any other 
constitutional ceremony. The Duke receives the 
power from the people, who are full of true demo- 
cratic distrust, demand strong guarantees, and to 
whom is given the supreme appeal to the right of 
revolution. The Duke is dependent upon the good- 
will of the peasantry. 

This old Slovene peasant commonwealth was not 
cemented by force. It was founded upon justice 
and law. The first question of the peasant Duke is : 
"Is he a just judge?" The Duke is the first judge 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 107 

in the land. Justice is the aim of the old Slovene 
peasant. Without justice there can be no political 
order, no social harmony. The Duke must have 
the welfare of the people at heart. He should not 
privilege any class, any estate. Before him all citi- 
zens are equal in right and duty. Modern demo- 
cratic ideas were realized in the old Slovene State of 
the seventh century. The peasant will only install 
a ruler who will promise social solidarity, relations 
more generous and more noble between man and 
man. Not subordination by conquest, not slavery, 
are the foundations of this State, but the highest 
moral teaching of true and free citizenship. 

Another element embodied in the ceremony is the 
old Slovene national element. The ceremony was 
doubtless created in the early days of Slovene na- 
tional State life. Would any German ruler have 
been so foolish as to create a ceremony which was 
so thoroughly humiliating to him ? The ducal stone 
and chair stand in the very heart of Carantania in 
the Croatian shire. It is extremely interesting from 
our Jugoslav point of view of to-day that the Croa- 
tian name survived just on the spot where exist the 
most venerable Slovene political traditions. The 
questions and answers are put and given in old Slo- 
vene. The peasant Duke is of Slovene extraction. 
The Duke wears the Slovene peasant garb. 

Another argument for the absolutely Slovene 
origin of the ceremony is that only the installation, 
and not the homage, bears a truly national sym- 



108 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

bolical meaning. Fine legal and political ideas are 
embodied only in the installation, which is of purely 
national Slovene origin. On the other hand, the 
homage is of a purely feudal character; it is a func- 
tion, introduced after the conquest. In this the peo- 
ple have no further part to play, only the German- 
ized nobility. 

The Count of Gorica is the personality common 
to both installation and homage. He escorts the 
Duke to the stone, bearing the ducal standard and 
commanding the standard-bearers of the twelve 
Carantanian shires. He is a representative of the 
national unity of Carantania, though Carantania is 
divided into twelve shires, in token of the large ter- 
ritory of the Slovenes. The highly gifted historian 
Levee asserted that early Carantania was absolutely 
an ethnic conception. But undoubtedly the subse- 
quent twelve shires of Carantania represented a po- 
litical Slovene unit. 

As the representative of Carantanian unity, the 
Count of Gorica takes his place on the other side of 
the ducal chair. He is the counterpart of the Duke ; 
he looks to the West, as the Duke looks to the East. 
Carantania is a Western and Eastern State. Two 
worlds are united here. The Count of Gorica, as 
the Duke's highest official, has to watch over the ex- 
pansion of the State in the direction of the West, the 
Duke has to look to the Eastern side. 

A custom not deeply rooted in the soul of man, 
one which was not the expression of a political in- 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 109 

dividuality strong as iron would not have survived 
the conquest. The miracle is that this ceremony 
not only survived the conquest, but survived it for 
full eight centuries. 

The Bohemian historian Palacky mentions that 
King Ottokar II of Bohemia was installed as Duke 
of Carinthia in 1270, only a few years before his 
defeat by the Habsburgs. During the centuries that 
followed, the Habsburgs were several times per- 
suaded to submit to be humbled by the Slovene peas- 
ant. The poet was right when he said "Ein harter 
Sitz" (a hard seat). Duke Ernest of Austria was 
the last to go through the ceremony in its ancient 
form in 1424. Anastasius Grun gives a masterly 
picture of the historic scene : 

Solemn grandeur, reverent silence, — 
The leafy crowns are still as death, 
And rigid gold the standing crops; 
Scarce breathes the waiting multitude. 
So that unhindered may arise 
The prince's voice unto the skies 
There blending with God's Holy Breath. 
For doubly sacred such an oath 
'Fore Nature and the nation both. 
Let perjury not fear alone 
An outraged people's anger stirr'd; 
But it must blush before the stone, 
The blade of grass, the nesting bird. 

And the Habsburgs perjured themselves for cen- 
turies when they destroyed the Slovenes' independ- 
ence, undermined their national existence, and de- 
stroyed their historic rights. 



110 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

The rulers of Austria as German Emperors, like- 
wise, often endeavored to escape the democratic 
humiliation as Dukes of Carinthia beside the ducal 
stone. Thus in 1403, Frederick III was excused 
from the ceremony by the States of Carinthia, but 
he was obliged to guarantee that his exemption 
should not mean abrogation. The Emperor Maxi- 
milian begged the Estates of Carinthia that he might 
go through the ceremony of the Gosposvetsko Plain 
by Proxy. The Archduke Charles of Austria re- 
ceived the feudal oaths of allegiance on the Duke's 
chair in 1564. His father, Ferdinand, requested 
the Estates of Carinthia that his son should not be 
obliged to go through the rest of the ceremony. A 
committee of the Estates met to discuss the consti- 
tutional side of the question. The reply of the en- 
voys of the Emperor to the Estates in the Castle of 
Celovec was, that the omission of the ceremony 
would in no wise prejudice their constitutional 
rights. 

Ferdinand II, in 1597, was the last Carinthian 
Duke who occupied the ducal stone. He was the 
last Duke who humbled himself before the Slovene 
peasant and gave the ritual answers in old Slovene. 

Later on, under the Habsburgs, the ceremony 
degenerated into a pitiful farce. The Emperor 
Ferdinand was in 1651 represented by Count Sigis- 
mund of Dietrichstein. This was the last occasion 
upon which the ducal chair was used. It was the 
last homage — the last appearance of the ducal peas- 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 111 

ant. The ancient custom fell into desuetude. Slo- 
vene independence perished, but the old Slovene tra- 
ditions continued to struggle irresistibly through 
centuries against abolition. 

The most tragic figure in this drama is the Carin- 
thian "dukemaker," the ducal peasant. His free- 
hold still enjoyed privileges, but he was shorn of 
this splendor. He did not flinch under the bad for- 
tune of the times. He was of old Slovene stock, 
steadfast also in adversity. He struggled cour- 
ageously with the Imperial bureaucracy for his 
rights. The courtiers made a jest of him. One of 
the last of the ducal peasants was blind and poor. 
In 1801 the freehold of the duke-maker was sold, 
and the peasant moved to Celovec, where he became 
an innkeeper, having received the privilege from the 
Emperor of Austria to import two barrels of Italian 
wine annually free of tax or duty. Truly an Im- 
perial gift! The last of the family died in 1823. 
Yet so strong was the memory of the constitutional 
role of the ducal peasants in the heart of the Carin- 
thian peasantry that crowds of peasants attended 
the funeral of the last representative of old Slovene 
democracy. The funeral was a great triumph for 
aristocratic Germanism. 

Old chronicles tell us that to the Viennese about 
the Emperor the ceremony on the Gosposvetsko 
Plain was often a subject of scornful laughter. The 
men of the court did not understand the act of the 
peasants. They had no feeling for the deep mean- 



112 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

ing it embodied. The last remnants of a free de- 
mocracy were contemptible in their eyes. The 
Viennese was in the past no less than to-day the very 
antithesis of a man born in freedom and righting 
for free citizenship. The free Carinthian Slovene 
of the old stock, strong and invigorated by the pure 
Alpine air was to the obsequious, intriguing court- 
iers of Vienna the representative of another, greater, 
larger, freer world which they did not comprehend. 
Generally the ducal peasant, the type of the free- 
born people, was invited to the coronation banquet. 
And there — so we read in old chronicles — the court- 
iers were amazed at the Slavonic intelligence, wit, 
and good humor of the simple rustic. 

The tragedy of the ducal peasant is the tragedy 
of the Slovene people. A sad fate befell this peo- 
ple; it missed a great historic opportunity of gath- 
ering around the ducal stone a Western Slavonic 
Empire. It became a people sunk in oblivion, in 
misery, and calamity. The well-spring of freedom 
ran dry. The German poet spoke truth when he 
said: 

So long as flows this well-spring clear, 
So long as men this oath revere, 
The Prince's Stone is held in honor, 
So long shall live in pristine might 
Our proud and trusty ancient right. 

But the ruler disregarded his oath ; the old law de- 
parted, and as for the mountains, they stand about 

The catafalque of Freedom's corse 

In weeds of woe, with hands a- wringing 

Like mourners at a funeral. 



THE OLD SLOVENIAN DEMOCRACY 113 

The ducal stone is the "catafalque of Freedom's 
corse" ; but this catafalque of Freedom never ceased 
to inspire Slovene popular imagination. A few 
years before the Great War a young Slovene author 
took the installation as theme of a novel. He was 
accused of high treason, and his work was taxed 
with being a Serbian propaganda; he was finally 
sentenced to a severe term of imprisonment with 
hard labor. Thus the Duke's chair became through 
an Austrian Court the symbol of Jugoslav unity and 
freedom. The ducal peasant will not lack succes- 
sors, and perhaps one day we shall witness the in- 
stallation of another dynasty of Jugoslav blood and 
sentiment. Not with distrust, but with love and 
enthusiasm, will the new ruler be hailed. Cancelled 
will be the memory of so many centuries of calamity, 
reverse, and humiliation. 

Apart from all patriotic enthusiasm, we must de- 
fine the true value of this old Slovene constitutional 
ceremony. It possesses not a local, but a universal 
intrinsic value. The most serious German and Sla- 
vonic scholars are agreed upon that. Krek, one of 
the ablest Slavonic philologists, thinks it is one of 
the oldest monuments of constitutional rights of the 
people. Even such a professor of the Pan-German 
pattern as Puntschart frankly declares that the in- 
stallation is one of the most interesting judicial 
antiquities of Europe, that ducal stone and chair oc- 
cupy a prominent place among the historical monu- 
ments of constitution and civilization. ("Herzog- 



114 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

seinsetzung und Huldigung in Karnten," p. 301.) 

And what of the Slovene people who created this 
law and usage ? The installation was a real old Slo- 
vene constitutional law existing until modern ages. 
Can it be supposed that the race, which saved this 
law in the centuries of subjection and humiliation, 
was weak and despondent? The political spirit, 
which created and preserved this marvel of civic 
freedom, was always strong and fearless. The his- 
tory of the Slovene installation shows what political 
resource was hidden in the soul of these poor peas- 
ants. Their connection with the struggle of to-day 
is only natural. Carinthia is the march of the Jugo- 
slav lands. Here Prussian Pan-Germanism has 
challenged Slavdom. The Ducal Peasant is dead, 
but his nation has remained faithful to its great his- 
torical mission to defend this ground with tenacity 
i — not to yield, but rather to die. 



VI 

THE FRENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS 
(1809-13) 

IN striking contrast to the somewhat drab and 
uneventful course of Slovene hi-story as a whole 
the four years of French rule stand out as a 
brilliant period of prosperity and incident, deserv- 
ing special mention in the history of French civiliza- 
tion and statesmanship. Any student of Jugoslav 
history comparing those days with our own time 
cannot help being struck by many points of resem- 
blance. To-day, as it did one hundred years ago, 
the world is passing through a momentous crisis 
which will decide the fate of future generations. 
Napoleon I created the first modern political union 
between Slovenes and Croats by which they might 
have attained independence and become the nucleus 
of a national State. Guided by his genius and in- 
tuition, Napoleon gave birth to a polity which dur- 
ing the course of the nineteenth century might easily 
have expanded into a great Jugoslav State if Na- 
poleon's own Empire had not perished so soon. 
Napoleon was the first to understand the Jugoslav 
question and to realize the inherent possibilities of 
the Jugoslav future. He fully appreciated the 
unique geographical position of the Slovene lands, 
and was convinced that they contained the promise 
of a great commercial development. The Illyrian 

115 



116 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

provinces were to be the link between France and 
the East. 

What France achieved in the Slovene lands with- 
in the space of a few years forms one of the most 
important chapters in the history of Napoleonic ad- 
ministration and politics. 

According to Napoleon the whole country be- 
tween the Soca (Isonzo) and the Sava, "as far as 
Bosnia," was Slovene territory. By the Peace of 
Schcenbrunn Carniola, the Slovene portion of Carin- 
thia, part of the Tyrol, Croatia south of the Sava, 
also Trieste, Gorica, Gradiska, and the Austrian 
portion of Istria were ceded to Napoleon by the Em- 
peror of Austria. Dalmatia, Venetian Istria, and 
the Republic of Ragusa had been previously taken 
by France. Out of all the countries Napoleon 
created the pays Illyriens; and it was a polity in 
which Jugoslavs, Italians, and Germans were to live 
side by side. But the Jugoslavs were to be the 
mainstay of this State, in which they formed the 
overwhelming majority, and the Slovene' city of 
Ljubljana was to be the capital of this new Jugo- 
slav State. Never before had Carniolians, Dalma- 
tians, Tyrolese been united under a common admin- 
istration. Marmont justly remarked that Croatian 
frontiersmen, Triestine merchants, Carniolian land- 
owners, miners from Istria and Bleiberg, as well as 
sailors from Dalmatia and Albania, were all made 
subject to the same laws within this polyglot State. 
But Napoleon never doubted the possibility of in- 



FRENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS 117 

eluding all these apparently divergent factors in one 
State under a homogeneous legal administration. 

It is significant that Napoleon did not include the 
terre irredente with Italy but with the pays Illyriens. 
Napoleon fully realized that Trieste without a Slo- 
vene hinterland could not exist any more than the 
Slovene hinterland without Trieste. He readily 
discerned that Venice and Trieste must always be 
rivals, and never could be allies. On September 15, 
1809, one month before the Peace of Schcenbrunn, 
he wrote that he would crush Trieste as being after 
all of no importance, since Venice was in his posses- 
sion, and his genius fully endorses the forecast that 
an Italian annexation would mean the economic and 
commercial ruin of Trieste as a seaport. 

The administration of the new State was defined 
by the decree of 1809. Illyria was divided into 
seven provinces: Carniola (with its capital of 
Ljubljana), Carinthia, with Beljak (Villach), Is- 
tria (with Trieste), Civil Croatia (with Karlovac), 
Dalmatia (with Zadar), Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and 
Kotor with the capital of Dubrovnik (Ragusa), and 
finally the military frontier as a seventh province. 
The object in creating this State was (as the author 
observes in his "Constitution and Administration of 
the Illyrian Territory," page 114) to enable France 
to penetrate towards the East. Napoleon was the 
first who rightly understood the importance of the 
Balkan States, and the value of the Illyrian territory 
for the conquest of the Near East. One hundred 



118 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 



u.__ 



years later Pan-German expansionist policy chose 
the same route towards the East through the Jugo- 
slav lands. But compare the wisdom of Napoleon 
with the clumsy brutality of the Prussian Junker- 
dom of 1914. 

The Illyrian lands were in every way distinct 
from the Kingdom of Italy, though both were sub- 
ject to the same sovereigns. An Italian possessed 
no right of citizenship in Trieste, any more than an 
Illyrian did in Milan. 

At first the French statesmen in Paris were un- 
decided as to the best way of organizing the Illyrian 
lands, and the decree which finally regulated their 
Constitution was not completed before 1811. It 
was an extremely difficult task to devise a homo- 
geneous system of government for a territory in- 
cluding such contrasting elements as regards nation- 
ality and culture. The same problem which will 
have to be faced by the Jugoslavs at the conclusion 
of the war was energetically taken in hand by Napo- 
leon and his fellow-workers one hundred years ago. 
Conflicting interests, the creations of centuries, had 
to be reconciled. Three languages, the Jugoslav, 
the German, and the Italian, and two religions, the 
Catholic and the Orthodox, contended with each 
other for supremacy in these countries. The Vene- 
tian Government, in this respect a worthy compeer 
of the Austrian, had consigned its subjects to total 
economic and intellectual neglect. The ancien 
regime had been a regime of conservative reaction 



FRENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS 119 

under which the country had vegetated and lan- 
guished in ignorance and thriftlessness. The new 
age brought a new type of official of the French 
school, full of new and entirely different ideas on 
administration. The very sharpness of the contrast 
prevented many a wise and noble project from ma- 
turing. A Governor-General stood at the head of 
the Illyrian administration. He was Commander- 
in-Chief of all naval and military forces. In many 
ways the Illyrian lands bore the character of a mili- 
tary frontier province. Strictly speaking the Gov- 
ernor-General was not the chief administrative of- 
ficial, but the chief control of the administration was 
vested in him. The Emperor appointed the officials, 
but the Governor-General had to confirm the ap- 
pointment. The decree especially provided for the 
employment of native officials in the various depart- 
ments of local administration. But in practice it 
proved exceedingly difficult to carry out this order 
of the decree, owing to the insufficient number of 
natives possessing the necessary qualifications. The 
Governor-General appointed the Mayors of the vari- 
ous provincial capitals, a provision which was con- 
sistent with the general tendency of the decree to 
minimize the power of the local government. The 
whole machinery of the administration rested in the 
hands of the General Intendant, the modern counter- 
part of the French Intendant of the old regime. 
The French Intendant of a former generation had 
been a finance official. The finances of the State 



120 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

are the first and most important administrative 
problem, and so the Intendant of Illyria bore the 
suitable title of "Intendant-General des finances." 
The Governor-General was the military head of the 
Illyrian Provinces, and the Intendant-General the 
head of the Civil Administration. As the country 
was more or less of the nature of a military frontier 
province, it is obvious that the whole administrative 
system was subordinated to the Governor-General. 

Such a system has one fatal drawback — it fosters 
an opposition between military and civil administra- 
tion, which is apt to hinder its efficiency. And as a 
matter of fact this opposition caused many difficul- 
ties in the government of Illyria. 

The two highest finance officials under the In- 
tendant-General were a "Receiver-General" and a 
"Tresorier." The Governor-General was assisted 
by the "Lesser Council" (le Petit Conseil), consist- 
ing of the Intendant-General, the Commissioner of 
Justice, Chief Justice of the country, and two Judges 
of the Court of Appeal in Ljubljana. The Petit 
Conseil was the highest Court of Appeal, and at the 
same time the supreme Court of Administration. 

Each province had its own Intendant. Accord- 
ing to the decree "the Intendants of the Illyrian 
provinces exercise the same functions as the prefects 
of the Departments of the Empire." 

Each province was subdivided into districts, which 
were governed by "sub-delegates." 

The creators of the Illyrian provinces committed 



FRENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS 121 

an error in not creating district local government; 
but we must remember that the official attitude of 
the Empire was not favorable to local government, 
or indeed to any form of Home Rule. 

The worst reproach, however, that can justly be 
levelled at the French administration is that it 
sought too rapidly to engraft French institutions 
upon a new and immature State. The Napoleonic 
era was characterized by a tendency towards cen- 
tralization. But the weakness would doubtless have 
been eventually remedied in Illyria. 

Napoleon separated the administrative. from the 
judicial system in Illyria, whereas hitherto there had 
been no division between the two departments. Ju- 
dicial procedure was modelled strictly upon the 
French plan. It was Napoleon's greatest merit that 
he introduced the Code Civile. By a decree of the 
Illyrian Government the Code Civile was translated 
into the three languages of the country. The Na- 
poleonic Code abolished the law of entail, but this 
led to the land being gradually broken up into hold- 
ings too small to be practical, especially in the Slo- 
vene lands. 

The chief support of the Illyrian Government was 
the Army. Marmont, the first great organizer of 
Illyria, caused the French military regulations to be 
translated into the Illyrian tongues. 

Napoleon devised a special regime for the Croa- 
tian military frontier, formerly the bulwark of the 
country against the Turks. Here the old military 



122 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

constitution remained in force, and the military 
commandants also acted as justices and administra- 
tors. When the abolition of the Croatian military 
frontier was suggested to Napoleon,, he cried, "Are 
you fools ? The Croats are not Frenchmen !" He 
had the greatest admiration for the disposition of 
the military frontier. His military genius was fas- 
cinated by this typical organization of a people re- 
markable in arms. Undoubtedly the military vir- 
tues of this nation of soldiers were well calculated 
to arouse Napoleon's unreserved approval. 

The French introduced an entirely new system of 
taxation, which, however, provoked strong opposi- 
tion from the Conservative element. 

Illyria suffered heavily under the Continental 
Blockade. The whole customs policy of Illyria was 
founded on the assumption of a great increase in 
French trade, and the creation of an Illyrian indus- 
try. It was a time of high protective tariffs; only 
on the Turkish frontiers there was no duty upon ex- 
port. 

On January 3, 1812, Trieste was declared a free 
port, but of course the Continental Blockade was ex- 
ceedingly detrimental to its development. The eco- 
nomic policy of the Illyrian Government was both 
far-sighted and liberal. In 1812 the Intendant 
wrote to Paris : "The day is at hand when the prod- 
ucts of Bosnia will be shipped on the Save to the 
very gates of Ljubljana." And with his mind's eye 
the Intendant saw the wealth of the East rendered 



FEENCH IN THE SLOVENE LANDS 123 

accessible through the possession of the Illyrian 
lands. Illyria was to be the starting-point for a net- 
work of roads through the Balkans. During the 
few years of their occupation the French erected 
public works and buildings which still command ad- 
miration, especially high-roads. 

The greatest achievement of the French regime 
was the abolition of mediseval feudalism which was 
the legacy of the Austrian and Venetian domina- 
tions. The French took the problem of the emanci- 
pation of the peasants most vigorously in hand. 
The "Robotes" were abolished; the French intro- 
duced social equality directly after the Annexation, 
and the magnates of the old regime lost their influ- 
ence and social prestige. 

The French unified the system of education; the 
so-called "Universite" was introduced into Illyria 
and modelled on the system of the mother-country. 
The Slovene language, which the Austrians despised, 
received every consideration in the schools, and a 
High School (the Academy) was founded in Ljubl- 
jana. 

The Budget of 1810 amounted to 18,809,000 fr. 
expenses, and the revenue to 12,475,000 fr. 

The history of the French administration of Il- 
lyria undoubtedly presents a record of the most 
amazing and successful educational experiments 
ever carried out by any nation in a foreign country. 
France spent much ability, capacity, and talent in 
creating a strong frontier State in the Jugoslav Near 



124 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

East; although the genius of Liberty had already 
been restrained by the Empire at the time of the an- 
nexation, the ideas of the great Revolution took root 
here in this far-off country. A breath of civil 
equality and Heaven-sent liberty pervaded these 
lands which had never known freedom, and whose 
people were stifling in the fog of Austrian and Vene- 
tian absolutism. 

A most touching allusion to the French rule oc- 
curs in a simple folk-tale. 

"In the days of the French, men paid few taxes. 
The judges were strict, but just. Money was as 
plentiful as hay; there was no misery, and thieves 
were unknown. The great lords had to be modest. 
We were treated well and humanely. Men lived 
without care and were happy and good, better than 
in later times. But such pleasant times are not 
created for mortals to enjoy them for ever." 

May France, the great country who a century ago 
gave to Illyria social and civil equality and the pos- 
sibilities of progress, not in these momentous times 
forget the sons of Illyria. A younger generation is 
striving for freedom, and hoping for a better future, 
which France, for her honor's sake, should help to 
create. 



VII 

POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF THE 
SLOVENES 

IT is only by studying the underlying causes of 
the political renascence of the Slovenes that the 
fundamental features of their political life and 
the preconditions for their development on Nation- 
alist lines can be rightly understood. 

As the Slovenes were among the earliest victims 
of German Imperialism, and Slovene political inde- 
pendence broke down before the invasion of Ger- 
man feudalism, one can scarcely speak of a political 
existence of the Slovenes prior to the era of the 
French Revolution. The Slovene language was the 
idiom of a peasant class. There were no Slovene 
nobles, few Slovene burgesses. 

Whoever wishes to consider the causes of the rise 
and growth of Slovene Nationalism, and that of 
every other small nationality, must pause a moment 
to consider the great ideas which have created the 
political and social institutions of the present day. 
The Renaissance of the sixteenth century and the 
great Reformation paved the way for the French 
Revolution. The individual had to be set free, the 
society to be emancipated from the Church, ere the 
minds of men could grasp the idea of independence 
for a national unit that had hitherto lacked political 
independence. But only a few chosen intellects of 

126 



126 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the eighteenth century grasped the meaning of Slo- 
vene Nationalism, and acted as pioneers of the fu- 
ture. The masses remained dumb and indifferent. 

Even the ideas of the French Revolution found no 
response among the bulk of the people. Only a 
small number of intellectuals began to realize that 
these ideas would eventually lead to a resurrection 
of the Slovene nation. The best men of the nation, 
among whom Vodnik was one of the most notable, 
hailed the French occupation and the creation of 
Illyria with enthusiasm. But although this did not 
yet constitute the beginning of the Slovene political 
movement, yet the memory of the short but glorious 
time of the French rule proved a powerful lever for 
the Slovene movement. 

When the French quitted the Slovene lands, and 
Austria resumed her reactionary sway, it was im- 
possible for an Austrian conservative regime to 
eradicate all traces of the French interregnum. The 
Austrians turned Napoleon's pays Illyriens into a 
Kingdom of Illyria. The Slovene nation was never 
so broken up and divided under the old absolutist 
rule as during the second half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, when the German Liberals came into power in 
Austria. 

At this juncture an important intellectual factor 
arose, which even during the gloom of the Metter- 
nich era helped to pave the way for the great events 
of the future. This factor was the Romantic move- 
ment. The future spokesman of the Slav nations 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF SLOVENES 127 

came in contact with the German Romantic move- 
ment. 

It was this that wakened the Austrian Slavs to a 
new life. National life, national history, legend, 
and tradition created a new literature, and this litera- 
ture led to the development of political revival. 
Long before the masses began to rouse themselves, 
the ideals of the Romantic period filled the minds of 
the intellectuals and scholars of the nation. 

Among the Northern Slavs, Kollar was the leader 
of the Slav Romantic movement, which crystallized 
into the political and Nationalist All-Slav idea. In 
the south it was Ulyrism which strove to unite Slo- 
venes, Croats, and Serbs. The Slovene poet Vraz 
and the Croato-Slovene Ljudevit Gaj initiated a far- 
reaching social movement in the Slav south. The 
younger generation quivered in the glad presenti- 
ment of the dawn of a new spiritual and political 
life. Deliverance from the shameful foreign yoke in 
all spheres of political and intellectual life became 
the watchword of the day, and the greatest men of 
the nation strove to give a new and national life to 
their country. Away with the German-Latin and 
Magyar languages ! Let the language of the nation 
be reborn, and a national literature arise ! A people 
that realizes its Jugoslav nature will no longer toler- 
ate a political foreign rule. 

The "Illyrians" were under no necessity to create 
an artificial literary language. The Bosnian idiom, 
in which the people sing their hero-songs, was ob- 



128 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

viously a natural, melodious, literary tongue, under- 
stood by the whole nation. It had the great advan- 
tage of being not only the idiom of most of the 
Croats, but also that of all the Serbs. The Croats 
of the Old Croat counties of Krizevac, Varazdin, 
and Zagreb certainly spoke a dialect, which was that 
of their Slovene neighbors in the west, rather than 
that of the Slavonians and Dalmatians, or the Serbs 
in what was then still part of Turkey. 

The position created by the "Illyrians" of Zagreb 
was not altogether without difficulty for the Slo- 
venes, who had first to rid themselves of both Ger- 
man and Italian pressure. The new literary lan- 
guage, the stokavscina, was, after all, not the same 
as the kajkavscina of the Slovenes. The poet 
Presern and his followers thought it would be better 
for the Slovenes to adopt a Carniolian dialect as 
their literary language. The matter was, however, 
decided by practical considerations. A literary lan- 
guage which differed too greatly from the popular 
idiom would, Presern thought, have less chance of 
competing successfully with the German and Italian 
languages. The Slovene colloquial tongue would, 
according to the opinion of the Slovene leaders, 
prove a better weapon against the anti-Nationalist 
tendencies which were even then beginning to make 
themselves felt. But in spite of this, even the 
staunchest upholders of a separate Slovene literary 
language never doubted the possibility of a future 
fusion of the Slovene with the Serbo-Croat literary 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF SLOVENES 129 

language. As Fran Levstik, the eminent Slovene 
critic, expressed it: "The Slovene and Croatian 
idioms appear to me like two streams arising from 
the same source. ... it is our task to see to it that the 
two streams are reunited in one river, seeing that 
both have arisen from the same source." 

Although the Slovenes did not adopt the Illyrian 
literary language reform, but began instead to de- 
velop their own Slovene language and literature, yet 
the Slovene Nationalist movement owed its first im- 
pulse to the Illyrian movement. Slovene National- 
ism was merely a further expression of the Illyrian 
idea of emancipation from foreign speech, culture, 
and political influence. It would be wrong to as- 
sume that the Slovenes repudiated the Illyrian lit- 
erary tongue, or even became less friendly disposed 
towards the Croats. A study of the mutual rela- 
tions between the Slav peoples reveals no friendship 
so frank and loyal as that which has existed from 
time immemorial between the Slovenes and Croats. 
Never have the two brother-nations been divided by 
conflicts or animosities, such as have not infrequent- 
ly occurred in the Slavonic family. 

The divinely gifted poet Presern was the true 
creator of Slovene intellectual life, and the modest 
beginnings of the Slovene political life coincide with 
the zenith of his creative power. Bleiweis made a 
beginning by editing the Novice, a journal that cer- 
tainly had no violent revolutionary tendencies. 
Bleiweis himself was no adherent of Illyrism, and 



130 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

it was he who recommended the leaders of the Slo- 
vaks to separate their language from that of the 
Czechs, and to create an independent Slovak literary 
tongue. For in the north the same differentiation 
took place between Czechs and Slovaks as in the 
south between Slovenes and Croats. 

The years prior to the Viennese March Revolu- 
tion were of incalculable importance to Slovene Na- 
tionalism. The All-Slav idea, which encountered 
no great opposition on the part of Austrian absolut- 
ism, and in those days rather bore the character of 
an idealistic fad, had already taken root among the 
Slovenes, and a new literature had arisen. But it 
was a misfortune for the Slovenes that the year 
1848 found them both socially and politically imma- 
ture. 

The Slovene peasantry were in a wretched posi- 
tion, both socially and economically. The reforms 
by which the French had improved the lot of the 
Slovene peasantry in the countries they had con- 
quered had been gradually replaced by the old land 
system under the Austrian rule. Under the arbi- 
trary aristocratic regime of the great landlords, who 
regarded the peasants simply as so much live stock 
on the land, the Slovene people could not be edu- 
cated to a sense of national self -consciousness and 
manly pride. The German was the landlord, the 
Slovene was the submissive, servile, devoted peas- 
ant, who drudged and slaved for the foreigner. 
And although the Slovene lands were shamefully 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF SLOVENES 131 

neglected by the Government, they were, in propor- 
tion, the most heavily taxed part of the Empire, as> 
was pointed out by a Slovene deputy in the Reichsrat 
of 1848. 

During the period of absolutism the management 
of all secondary schools in the Slovene lands was 
exclusively German. The greater number of the 
primary schools were bi-lingual. In Styria it was 
above all the great Archbishop Slomsek who strove 
to introduce the use of the Slovene tongue into the 
primary schools. 

In all Government offices the Slovene language 
was practically banned. German was the official 
language. One of the first reforms demanded by 
the Slovenes in 1848 was the introduction of the 
Slovene language into the schools and Government 
offices. 

The absolutist regime, supported by the Dynasty, 
the aristocracy, the military, and a petty system of 
press censorship, was quite incapable of resisting a 
vigorous popular movement. When the February 
Revolution in Paris heralded the approach of a new 
era, Metternich's old Austria collapsed like a house 
of cards. In Vienna the March Revolution scored 
an almost bloodless victory in its first impetuous on- 
slaught. All resistance on the part of the old regime 
was hopeless. 

The Czechs were the first among the Austrian 
Slavs to formulate their Nationalist and political 
programme, in the meeting at Vaclavske lazni. The 



132 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Slovenes could not rise to prompt and efficient ac- 
tion. Events had taken them unawares, and they 
lacked leaders possessing the necessary energy and 
insight. The situation could be summed up in the 
words, "The hour had come; but the hour is noth- 
ing without the man." The first leaders of the Slo- 
venes were intellectuals and inexperienced youths. 
In these days of the Revolution, the same as so often 
in later years, the Slovenes developed far greater 
activity abroad than in their own country. 

Carniola, and especially Ljubljana, were entirely 
without energetic initiative. Abroad, in Vienna 
and in Graz, the intellect was sharpened by wider 
social intercourse with other Slavs. It was on for- 
eign soil that the first political organizations were 
founded and the first Nationalist programmes for- 
mulated. 

The academic youth of the Slovenes was very 
strongly represented in the Revolution during those 
days in March. The issue was decided on March 
13th. The Court and the police simply capitulated. 
Two days later the Emperor granted freedom of the 
press and consented to the introduction of sundry 
other liberal reforms. On March 29th the "Slo- 
venija," the first Slovene Union, was founded in 
Vienna. The first president of the society was the 
subsequently famous Slavist Miklosic. Nor were 
the Slovenes inactive in Graz, where Mursec and 
Joseph Kranjec, afterwards a well-known jurist, 
created the Graz Slovenija, a society pursuing the 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF SLOVENES 133 

same aims as the Viennese society of the same name. 
The Viennese "Slovenija" formulated the following 
programme : — 

"The Slovenes of Carniola, Styria, the Coast- 
land, and Carinthia are one people; they are there- 
fore to be united in one kingdom, which is to bear 
the name 'Slovenija.' This kingdom is to possess 
its own Parliament. The Slovene language shall 
enjoy the same rights in Slovene countries as Ger- 
man enjoys in German countries." Special impor- 
tance attaches to that part of the programme which 
defines the relations between Austria and Germany. 
"Our 'Slovenija' is to be an integral part of the Aus- 
trian, not of the German Empire. We do not de- 
sire our country to be represented in the German 
Parliament, and shall only feel bound to obey such 
laws as are given us by our Emperor in conjunction 
with our deputies. Our Emperor has given us our 
Constitution; we can do nothing without our Em- 
peror and our deputies " 

A few days earlier, Palacky, the leader of the 
Czechs, had likewise sent his reply to the Committee 
of Fifty at Frankfort. The Frankfort Parliament 
had issued a manifesto to the Austrian Slavs re- 
questing them to send their delegates to the German 
Parliament. But the election of delegates from 
Austria would have been tantamount to an admis- 
sion that Austria belonged to the German Empire. 
The instinct of self-preservation prompted the Aus- 
trian Slavs to take up a firm stand with the Parlia- 



134 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

ment of Frankfort. Palacky's answer to the invi- 
tation from Frankfort was at the same time a state- 
ment of the programme of the Austrian Slavs. 
Palacky refused to recognize the Union of the Ger- 
man Empire. Within the borders of Austria the 
Slavs might hope for the possibility of national de- 
velopment, but not within the borders of Germany. 
His document contains the following world-famous 
passage : "Truly, should the Austrian State cease to 
exist, it would be necessary to re-create it as soon as 
possible in the interests of Europe, nay, of human- 
ity." Yet this sentence does not fully express 
Palacky's thought. Only an Austria which would 
be just toward all nationalities, an Austria in which 
none was lord and none was slave, could fulfill so 
great a task. And only under these conditions 
Palacky was a friend of Austria. His "Idea of the 
Austrian State" contains an instructive parallel to 
the passage just quoted. "We were before Austria; 
we shall also be after her! The existence of the 
Slavs is not dependent upon the existence of Aus- 
tria. An Austria which oppresses the Slavs has 
lost the right to exist. National equality is justice 
before God and man. If Austria is unable or un- 
willing to grant us this, we have no further interest 
in her preservation, for we can suffer injustice 
equally outside Austria, and that free of cost!" In 
this passage Palacky's thoughts are clearly ex- 
pressed. In 1848 Palacky was firmly convinced 
that Austria would be just towards her various na- 



POLITICAL EENASCENCE OF SLOVENES 135 

tionalities, and it was within the confines of the 
Austrian Empire that Palacky strove to create a hap- 
pier future for the Czechs and other Slavs. He 
realized that the German Empire would mean na- 
tional death to the Austrian Slavs, and his refusal 
of the invitation of the Frankfort Parliament was 
the first historic action taken by the Austrian Slavs 
against that current of ideas which several decades 
later was called Pan-Germanism. 

Palacky formulated the Slav programme as fol- 
lows : The Austrian Slavs will send their represen- 
tatives to Vienna, not to Frankfort. Vienna must 
not sink to the level of a provincial town. Side 
by side with Germany there must be a completely in- 
dependent Austria, and this Austria must gravitate 
towards the East. Austria must develop her life as 
a State entirely apart from Germany. 

This idea is also contained in the manifesto issued 
by the Viennese "Slovenija" to the Slovenes. In 
this manifesto the Slovenes were called upon to pro- 
test against the holding of elections for the Frank- 
fort Parliament. It was pointed out that all who 
sent representatives would thereby divest themselves 
of their national rights. Austrian history affords 
the clearest proofs of the disastrous nature of a 
union with Germany ; of all her promises Germany 
keeps but few. Let a constitutional Austria be the 
refuge of the Slovenes. 

Then began an extremely interesting controversy 
with the German poet and subsequent statesman 



136 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Anastasius Grucn, Count Auersperg. Gruen's reply 
to the manifesto of the "Slovenija" is still steeped 
in the old Liberal spirit of conciliation, which later 
on disappeared entirely. In his opinion it is para- 
doxical of the Slovenes to protest against the elec- 
tion of delegates for the Frankfort Parliament. 
"Slovene brothers, if you separate yourselves from 
Germany, you will separate yourselves from Aus- 
tria also But if you will not remain with Ger- 
many, together with Austria, pray reflect, that the 
further you alienate yourselves from Germany, the 
nearer you will approach to Russia." And Russia, 
according to Gruen, and even in Palacky's opinion, 
was the great enemy of Western civilization. Aus- 
tria — thus argued Gruen — could only be worthily 
represented in the Frankfort Parliament if all her 
nationalities sent their representatives. Let the Slo- 
venes also send the best sons of their nation. 

But the Slovenes had an answer ready for Anas- 
tasius Gruen. A political union with Germany 
would be a betrayal, as thereby Austria would sink 
to the position of a Crown land, and the Emperor to 
that of a Lieutenant-Governor under a Frankfort 
Government. It would be dangerous for Austria to 
form a United State with Germany, or to join the 
German Confederation. One hundred and ninety 
Austrian deputies would be powerless against the 
six hundred German deputies in Frankfort. The 
following view upon Germany is really most char- 
acteristic: "In Germany, humanitarian ideals and 



POLITICAL EENASCENCE OP SLOVENES 137 

liberty have no abiding place; but they will have 
one in an Austria rilled with the spirit of Equity and 
Justice. The Slovenes have no reason to fear Rus- 
sia. But above all things they desire to see Austria 
independent." 

To these views Gruen opposed fresh arguments. 
He confessed himself a friend of the Slovenes. He 
argued that the Slovenes had no reason to fear that 
Germany would wish to Germanize them, a view 
which reveals the guilelessness of his poetic soul. 
But it is significant that Gruen foresaw the future 
emancipation of the Slovene lands. "Let Slovenija 
yet awhile take her ease, being led by the hand of 
her elder sister Austria. She need not be ashamed 

of such guidance When Slovenija is mature, 

separation will be only natural, even if not less pain- 
ful." In one respect Gruen was certainly right. He 
said that a separation from Germany would throw 
the Slovenes into the arms of Russia. The true im- 
port of these words will be at once apparent if we 
replace the word "Russia" by another, to wit, the 
word "Jugoslavia." 

The Slovenes did not abstain from the elections 
for the Frankfort Parliament in the same well- 
ordered, politically disciplined manner as the Czechs. 
Their political sense and organization were yet in 
their infancy. Yet it is safe to say that the agita- 
tion against Frankfort was not without good results. 

When the Archduke Joachim gave audience to the 
deputation of the States of Carniola, in order that 



138 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

they might interpret the wishes of the Carniolian 
Diet, it was Bleiweis who preferred the petition for 
the unification of the Slovene lands. With true 
Austrian bonhomie the Archduke Joachim replied: 
"Well, you are right ; in several ways that would be 
quite useful." 

According to the Constitution of April 25, 1848, 
all the countries belonging to the Austrian Empire 
formed a Constitutional Monarchy. One of these 
countries was Illyria, consisting of the duchies of 
Carinthia and Carniola and the Coastland. Thus 
the revolution of 1848 did not cause "Illyria" to dis- 
appear from off the scene. Members for the Vien- 
nese Parliament (Reichsrat) were elected by uni- 
versal indirect suffrage. The Slovenes sent up six- 
teen deputies, although they were by right entitled 
to twenty-one. The Slovene delegates were not an 
altogether united party. They lacked strong lead- 
ers, who would have compelled the Slovenes to pur- 
sue a consistent policy. This want of solidarity 
was a consequence of ignorance of parliamentary 
routine and political inexperience on the part of the 
Slovene deputies. 

Besides the Imperial Parliament each country pos- 
sessed its own Diet. The discussions upon the fu- 
ture provincial Constitution in the Styrian Diet af- 
ford characteristic proof of the conciliatory mood 
and the friendly spirit towards the Slovenes in those 
days. The Constitution was to provide for national 
and political equality of Slovenes and Germans. 



POLITICAL RENASCENCE OF SLOVENES 139 

This resolution was passed without debate in the 
provincial Diet. Styria was to be divided into three 
districts. The Slovene (Lower Styrian) district 
was to include the Slovene parts of the districts of 
Maribor and Celje. Truly, there was a spirit of in- 
ternational brotherly love and kindliness abroad in 
the Parliament of Graz in those days, which was 
never to be found there afterwards. 

In October the revolution in Vienna made it im- 
possible for the Imperial Parliament to hold its sit- 
tings in the capital. The Reichsrat was therefore 
transferred to the quiet little Moravian town of 
Kromeriz. Special importance attaches to the de- 
bates in the Constitutional Committee in Kromeriz, 
at whose sittings important suggestions regarding 
the reform of the Monarchy were put forward. Dr. 
von Lohner, a German, proposed the formation of a 
Polish, a Czech, an Italian, a German, and a Slovene 
Austria. Slovene Austria was to include Carniola, 
Styria, Carinthia south of the Drave, and the Slo- 
vene part of Gorizia. In this country the official 
language was to be Slovene. With these Slovene 
lands Croatia was to be united. This was the pro- 
gramme of the German Left. Palacky suggested 
that Austria should be divided into nine national ter- 
ritories, viz : German, Austrian, Czech, Polish, Slo- 
vene, Italian, Jugoslav, Magyar, and Roumanian 
Austria. 

But all these far-seeing plans came to naught. 
The reaction was too powerful. On March 7, 1849, 



140 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the Debating Hall of the Austrian Imperial Parlia- 
ment was occupied by the military, and the Austrian 
Constitution had come to a swift and sudden end. 

Although in 1848 the Slovenes did not yet dis- 
play a determined political spirit in the full con- 
sciousness of their existence and rights, yet the spell 
was broken. A people that had for centuries lain in 
lethargic slumber was now awakened. Henceforth 
no power on earth would be strong enough to stop 
the Nationalist movement. It is true that the years 
of absolutism that followed upon 1848 rendered po- 
litical life impossible; but the Slovene ideal of the 
year 1848 lived on in the heart of the Slovenes. 



vni 

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 

THE so-called March Constitution of 1849 
was a Constitution that never came into 
force. It was the last Royal Charter in 
which "Illyria" is still mentioned among the Crown 
lands. Henceforward the word disappears from 
the official nomenclature, and the memory of the 
kingdom of Illyria is preserved only in the title of 
the Official Gazette of the Littoral, which to this day 
bears the heading Official Gazette of the Austro- 
Illyrian Coastland. 

We must not omit to mention that the March 
Constitution, under whose charter no Parliament 
was ever elected or convoked, was far more favora- 
ble to the Slovenes than the Constitutional laws of 
the sixties. The March Constitution bore a Cen- 
tralistic character, and under it Croatia was still rep- 
resented in the Reichsrat; the position of the Slo- 
venes in such a Reichsrat would have been very 
strong indeed, as in conjunction with the Croats 
they would have constituted a numerous Nationalist 
group. But as the March Constitution infringed 
the historic prerogative of Hungary and Croatia, it 
was unacceptable to these two countries. 

Then followed the dark years of the absolutist 
regime. The Slovene movement of 1848 could 

144 



142 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

scarcely yet be called a purely popular movement, 
for the masses — in the true sense of the words — 
took no great part in it ; but, nevertheless, the main 
principle of Slovene Nationalism was clearly and 
energetically expressed in 1848. During the drab 
and soul-destroying monotony of the years of ab- 
solutism the leaders of the Slovenes had time and 
leisure to prepare themselves for future struggles. 

It is exceedingly significant of Austrian ways and 
public opinion in Austria that defeats on the battle- 
fields arouse no feelings save those of satisfaction 
among the social elements in favor of political free- 
dom and nationalist sentiment. The memoirs of 
Joseph Vosnjak contain an interesting comment on 
the impression produced by the defeat at Magenta : 
"No one was depressed by the defeat of our army, 
now come to an end." 28 Certainly this a state of 
affairs revealing a most unhealthy condition of the 
body politic; but if we consider Austria's position 
to-day, we must confess that these words are as true 
as if they had been penned yesterday. 

The year 1860 was the great turning-point in Slo- 
vene political life. It was then that the mass cf the 
people entered the arena. Hitherto only a small in- 
tellectual minority had occupied itself with politics, 
but now the new political ideas were spread among 
the masses. The events of 1848 showed the politi- 
cal organization of the Slovenes yet raw and inex- 



88 Dr. Joseph Vosnjak, "Spomini," i. p. 64. 



STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 143 

perienced. Now they understood how to organize 
and agitate. A life-giving tide of enthusiasm 
surged over all the Slovene lands, and it was as if 
those fair, impassioned years when the young II- 
lyrians, filled with romantic fervor, proclaimed the 
national ideals with lyre and sword, were now cele- 
brating a glad rebirth. But these were more prac- 
tical times. Men aimed at more tangible political 
prizes, and instead of striving for the great idea of 
Jugoslav unity they sought to provide the founda- 
tions of greater national prosperity for the Slo- 
venes. 

Federalism and Centralization — those were the 
two opposing principles which eventually led to most 
confusion in Austrian home politics with regard to 
the Constitution. It is a peculiarity of Austrian 
constitutional conflicts that the most antagonistic 
political principles are found in the strangest juxta- 
position. The October Diploma, much abused for 
being Federalistic, contains many Centralist ele- 
ments, and the February Patent is not without Fed- 
eralist features. Both afford glaring instances of 
Austria's unpardonable and demoralizing habit of 
doing everything by halves. Neither of the two 
Constitutions gives clear expression to a well-defined 
political thought. It is as if their framers had 
sought mutually to deceive each other with vague 
and deceptive ambiguities. Here lies the reason 
why Austrian constitutional law has become a kind 
of inner mystery, which drives the expert to despair 



144 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

and provides every facility for a quibbling interpre- 
tation. Thus the year 1860 saw the beginning of 
the great Comedy of Errors, which was to occupy 
the weary years of a full half -century, and to lead 
to the general downfall. 

German Liberalism — which was Centralistic — 
was opposed by the Slav Federalism — unfortunately 
inclined to be somewhat reactionary — of the so- 
called Historically Constituted Units (Staatsrecht- 
lich historische Individualitaten) , such as Bohemia. 
It was difficult for the Slovenes to make a choice. 
They were not an historic entity, with historic and 
constitutional traditions. On the other hand, Ger- 
man Centralism was likewise fraught with danger to 
them. The uncertain, undecided attitude of the 
Slovenes in face of the great constitutional problems 
was a great evil, but it was an evil that sprang from 
the very nature of Slovene policy. Carniola was 
the only Slovene country that could have benefited 
by an increase of the autonomous power vested in 
the Provincial Parliaments. In all other Provincial 
Parliaments the Slovenes were in the minority, and 
the constitutional legislation of the Provincial Par- 
liaments might easily have proved disastrous to the 
Slovene minority. The Slovene politicians discov- 
ered very soon that the local administration and 
Provincial Government were both completely domi- 
nated by German and Italian influence, whereas the 
Central Government in Vienna was much more com- 
plaisant, principally because of the pressure exer- 
cised by the great Slav parties there. 



STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 145 

Thus the Slovenes could not pursue a definitely- 
Federalist policy, nor yet one that was purely Cen- 
tralist; they were obliged to compromise. There 
was, however, a third course between these two ex- 
tremes, which would have absolutely suited the posi- 
tion of the Slovenes. This was the principle of 
National Autonomy, according to which Home Rule 
was to be granted — not on the strength of the his- 
toric boundaries of the Crown lands, but of the ac- 
tual, present, ethnographic boundaries between the 
different nationalities. The Constitution drafted 
by Palacky in 1849 and the Slovene programmes of 
1848 were all founded on the principle of National 
Autonomy. But the times were not ripe for this 
idea in the sixties, as too much value was attached 
to Centralistic ideology and certain aspects of con- 
stitutional law. 

Military and bureaucratic absolutism broke down 
helplessly at Magenta and Solferino. On May 31st 
the Enlarged Reichsrat (Imperial Council or Parlia- 
ment) began its debates on the question of the Con- 
stitution. It was an assemblage of specially ap- 
pointed magnates and dignitaries of State. Bishop 
Strossmayer was the spokesman of the Croats ; the 
Slovenes had no representative in the Enlarged 
Reichsrat. The result of these debates was the Oc- 
tober Charter, a masterpiece of political hypocrisy 
and casuistry. The Federalist parties saw in it a 
victory of their efforts, and the German Centralist 
middle classes a defeat; yet the Charter by no 



146 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

means satisfied the Croats, and still less the Slo- 
venes. 

By the October Diploma the powers of the 
Reichsrat (Imperial Council) were strictly limited 
and circumscribed, while the Diets (Parliaments of 
the Kingdoms and Crown lands) were given a very 
free hand indeed. It was precisely this freedom of 
action as regards legislation in the Provincial Parlia- 
ments that constituted the value of the October Di- 
ploma in the eyes of the partisans of Federal Au- 
tonomy. The October Diploma was proclaimed an 
immutable and irrevocable fundamental law 
{Relchsgrundgesetz) . But now followed a truly 
Austrian proceeding. Within a few months of its 
promulgation this "fundamental law" was repealed. 
The German middle classes set every law in motion, 
and the German Liberal Party succeeded in carrying 
through the February Patent. By this Charter the 
Reichsrat became an instrument of German Liberal- 
ism, entirely suited to the wishes of the Germans. 

By the February Patent the political centre of 
gravity in the Monarchy was transferred to the Im- 
perial Council in Vienna. One of the results of the 
February Constitution was the increased number of 
the Diets, and in this respect the Slovenes had no 
cause to be satisfied with the February Constitution, 
which became a scourge, devised by German Liberal- 
ism, for the Slovenes. The fair Illyrian dreams 
had vanished; henceforth Slovene policy was para- 
lyzed by being divided between six Diets. In five 



STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 147 

of these the Slovenes were bound to be in a hopeless 
minority. The primary conditions for effective 
political activity were destroyed. 

The Provincial Parliament elected the Members 
of the House of Deputies for the Imperial Parlia- 
ment. What manner of representation the Slo- 
venes enjoyed in the Imperial Parliament may be 
deduced from the fact that only in the Carniolian 
Diet they were in a majority. The Czechs alone 
had it in their power to support the Slovenes in 
their Nationalist demands. But the Czechs pursued 
a policy of abstention and boycotted the Imperial 
Parliament in Vienna. Thus it was almost impossi- 
ble for the Slovenes to obtain any success at all. 

The years between the February Patent and the 
Austro-Prussian War represent a period of struggle 
for the form of the Empire. Hungary refused to 
come into the Imperial Parliament in Vienna, and it 
became necessary to find a new formula to define the 
relationship between Austria and Hungary. After 
the defeat of Koniggratz, the Austro-Hungarian 
Dualism was constituted in all haste and superficial- 
ity. Palacky, in his Idee des Osterreichischen 
Staates ("Idea of the Austrian State"), aptly de- 
scribes it as "an experiment so dangerous that it 
may cost the existence of the State." The contem- 
porary generation of Slovene politicians cannot be 
held altogether blameless, because they failed to 
foresee and to realize the terrible danger which was 
threatening to destroy both them and the Croats. 



148 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

But we must take into account that, after all, it did 
not depend upon the Slovenes whether the Dualism 
were introduced or not. That great crime was com- 
mitted by others. 

The statutes of 1867 granted freedom of assem- 
bly and association, and enabled the Slovene leaders 
to spread the idea of national rights among the mass 
of the people. The Slovene movement became a 
truly popular movement, when the national rights of 
the Slovenes were formulated amid great enthusi- 
asm at numerous meetings. This was the time of 
the "Tabori," in which the hitherto lacking contact 
between the intellectuals and the masses was at last 
established. At the first great "Tabori" in Ljuto- 
mer a resolution was passed demanding the intro- 
duction of the Slovene language in schools and 
Government offices. A united Slovenia with na- 
tional administration was another point in the Na- 
tionalist programme, which had already been put 
forward in 1868, and which now deeply stirred the 
people. The leaders of the Slovenes fully realized 
that Article 19 of the Statute Law, which dealt with 
national equality, was a mere dead letter so long as 
there was no executive law to regulate the linguistic 
claims in detail. The Slovene programme found an 
enthusiastic echo among the masses, and men real- 
ized that a certain German Styrian politician, who 
had opined that fifty years hence the Slovenes would 
have ceased to exist, would certainly prove a false 
prophet. The spell was broken, and there was no 



STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION 149 

need to fear for the vitality of the Slovene move- 
ment. The nation was full of faith in the future. 
In 1868 Joseph Vosnjak and his friends founded 
the Slovenski Narod, the first important Slovene 
daily — a great event in the annals of Jugoslav jour- 
nalism. The new paper professed Liberal and Na- 
tionalist tendencies. 

During the next few years the national struggle 
became especially acute in the Styrian Diet. In 
this Parliament a small Slovene minority was pitted 
against a majority of Chauvinists, who refused to 
concede any rights at all to the Slovene language. 
The Slovene deputies upheld the principle of na- 
tionality with sound and vigorous arguments, and 
many a true and weighty word was spoken in the 
debates and questions of that time. The following 
sentence from an interpellation (in 1869) is well 
worth quoting: "The Slavs would have made in- 
finitely better progress if as much had been done for 
them as has been done against them, and even if 
they had been left to their fate. The Austrian 
Slavs have not had one red-letter day." 

In 1873 the Provincial Parliaments were deprived 
of the right of sending delegates to the Imperial 
Parliament; henceforth the elections were direct. 
This somewhat improved the position of the Slo- 
venes in those countries where they were not in a 
majority, and it is only since then that a true parlia- 
mentary activity of the Slovenes has been possible. 

After the Hohenwart-Schaffle Government had 



150 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

made one last attempt to federate Austria, and the 
cardinal demands of the Czechs had failed of their 
realization, the period of the great struggle for the 
Constitution came to a close. The rising power of 
the German Empire and of the Magyars, to whom 
the dynasty became subservient, wrecked every 
scheme of Federalist reform. A thoroughly mis- 
taken foreign policy was a further, inevitable conse- 
quence of the Germano-Magyar hegemony. 

But at first, when the main guiding-lines of the 
Austro-Hungarian Dualistic policy were but newly 
laid down, the statesmen of Berlin and Budapest 
were still moderate, and those in charge of the Aus- 
trian State timidly sought to render the fate of the 
Austrian Slavs less unjust. Not by laws, but by by- 
laws and regulations, they sought to satisfy the Na- 
tionalist demands of the Austrian Slavs. But a by- 
law was the very means whereby, with truly Aus- 
trial insincerity, linguistic rights could most cau- 
tiously be granted and then hedged in with clauses. 
The annals of the Austrian languages regulations 
afford a most characteristic illustration of the inade- 
quate means by which Austria sought to overcome 
the languages problem. 



IX. 

THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 

TO-DAY we are witnesses of the breaking-up 
of Austria, and her friends must note the 
changes of time and circumstance with sor- 
row. But Austria is herself the cause of her own 
downfall. She showed herself incapable of adapt- 
ing herself to the leading ideas and thought-currents 
of our age. When the ancient Empire of Austria 
allowed itself to be taken in tow by the upstart 
Power Germany, and was — most unnecessarily — 
dragged into Germany's Weltpolitik, then all was 
lost indeed. 

When we remember the leading part played in 
European foreign politics by Austria in the days of 
Metternich, we cannot but marvel at the subservient 
position now occupied by Austria with regard to 
Germany. In those days Austria was the arbiter of 
Europe ; to-day she has neither initiative nor a will 
of her own in foreign politics. At the Congress of 
Ljubljana (Laibach) Austria imposed her will upon 
Europe, and the international protest against so 
many Liberal Governments was the work of Aus- 
tria. This intervention was set on foot in the name 
of Europe, and at Austria's behest. But it is possi- 
ble to reverse the principle. An intervention may 
take place, not only on behalf of the principles of 

151 



152 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Conservatism and Divine Right, but also on behalf 
of those of national existence and the freedom of 
nationalities; and a Europe which desires world- 
peace must intervene in the latter sense, and inci- 
dentally in favor of Jugoslavia. 

The history of Austria and the Slovenes forms an 
interesting chapter. Of all the Slavs the Slovenes 
have lived longest under Austria's sceptre. They 
were the first to lose their independence, the first 
victims of German feudalism. They shared every 
turn of fortune that befell the Habsburg Empire. 
The Old Austrian system of Government was a 
regime of patriarchal tutelage over both nationali- 
ties and individuals. The limited intellect of the 
subject was not permitted to evade the guardian- 
ship of absolutism. Not only was the individual 
treated as a political minor, but the nationality like- 
wise. The Sovereign ruled the peoples well or ill 
by rule of thumb, more paterno, and the police, 
modelled on a Tuscano — Spanish system, interfered 
in all private affairs of the subjects — not citizens — 
of the State. Foreign politics and the Army were 
the exclusive domain of the Sovereign. The mid- 
dle classes, the intelligence of the nation, and the 
mass of the people had no say at all in the matter. 

In this stifling atmosphere of insincerity, thral- 
dom, and absolutism the Slovenes lived until 1848. 
This eventful year overtook them in a state of na- 
tional unreadiness. The Slovene policy of 1848 
was confused and by no means clear as to its issue. 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 153 

The Dynasty was not in the least hostile in its at- 
titude towards Illyrism, which even in those days 
proclaimed the principles of what was subsequently 
called Jugoslavia. The House of Habsburg, which 
had never grasped the wisdom of attaching the 
Balkan Slavs to itself by an anti-Turkish policy, 
looked upon Illyrism, which proclaimed the unity of 
Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, as a counterbalance to 
the Hungarian bid for independence. The policy 
of the Habsburgs was always ambiguous and insin- 
cere, as is most amply and clearly proved by the 
story of Croatia and the fate of Jelacic in 1848. 

The Austria of absolutism looked upon the unity 
of the Jugoslavs as a natural, incontestable fact, and 
in Vienna the expression "Illyrian" had a more fa- 
miliar ring in it than "Slovene" or "Croat." Vienna 
even assisted in the work of unification. In 1850 
the Viennese Government appointed a Commission 
to establish a unified Jugoslav legal nomenclature. 
This Commission, which consisted of Serbs, Croats, 
and Slovenes, accomplished its work within a few 
years, and the first Jugoslav "Legal Terminology" 
appeared during the heyday of absolutism. 

It was Austria's misfortune that she could never 
carry a plan, once conceived, to its logical conclu- 
sion. Thus the occupation of Bosnia and Herce- 
govina, which added a large Jugoslav population to 
the Jugoslavs of the Empire, finally became a 
wretched piece of political patchwork. If the rul- 
ing political system of those days had not been the 



154 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Austro-Hungarian Dualism, but a system of Federa- 
tion, under which all the Austrian nationalities 
would have been equally privileged, this occupation 
would have rendered Austria the predominant 
Power in the Balkans. But Germany and Hungary 
made such a solution impossible, and Bosnia became 
an awful example to the rest of the Balkan Slavs. 
Joseph Vosnjak was quite logical in his forecast, in 
1878, when he expressed his apprehension that the 
Slavs would derive no advantage from the occupa- 
tion, and that it would only strengthen the hands of 
the dominant German-Hungarian regime. 

It is most interesting to note the different phases 
through which the Austrian administration in the 
Slovene lands has passed during the last forty years, 
since the foundation of the German Empire. Dur- 
ing the years when Germany was not yet allied to 
Austria-Hungary, and at the time when Austria's 
foreign policy was not yet abused in the interests of 
home politics, the Slovene element came greatly to 
the fore in the administration. As a matter of fact 
the Government under Taaffe introduced no radical 
innovations in the administrative system, but con- 
tented itself with introducing the Slovene language 
gradually into the law-courts and the administra- 
tion. The Slovenes felt that this was only justice 
"so far as might be practicable," an enforced conces- 
sion to the Slovene Nationalist Idea. The regula- 
tions issued under Taaffe with regard to linguistic 
rights were half-measured, but they reveal at least 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 155 

an inclination towards impartiality, towards a more 
just handling of the administration. Moreover, 
under him, the Slovenes were of the Government 
party. The Nationalist struggles in Styria and 
Carinthia were not particularly bitter just then, and 
"live and let live" was not only the motto of the 
Government, but also of the various Nationalist 
parties. 

But already in Taaffe's time the Pan-German 
Party began to develop in Austria. Fully imbued 
with the old Austrian spirit, and feelings instinc- 
tively that a rapprochement with Germany would be 
disastrous to Austria, Taaffe ruthlessly persecuted 
this party. German Irredentism was taboo in 
Vienna. In every way the eighties and nineties of 
last century were years of quiet and unostentatious 
progress in Austria; Austrian statesmen were pre- 
pared to develop the idea of a State of Nationalities, 
and the consequences of the Dualist system were not 
yet so disastrously apparent. 

Badeni's fall in 1897 suddenly brought a vein of 
non-compromise into Austrian Nationlist politics 
which had been unknown before. During his 
premiership Badeni issued the Bohemian languages 
regulations which were to place the German and 
Czech languages on a perfectly equal footing in 
Bohemia. The complete change in policy of the 
Germans most particularly affected the Slovene 
lands, where the Nationalist conflict in Styria and 
Carinthia at once began to assume a sharp and un- 
compromising character. 



156 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

An energetic system of Germanization was at 
once inaugurated all along the German and Slovene 
linguistic frontier. The German marches began to 
encroach upon Slovene territory, and the Govern- 
ment assisted the activity of the Pan-German or- 
ganizations with truly paternal solicitude. 

The old Austrian distrust of Germany, which 
had so strongly inspired Taaffe, had disappeared. 
The Government did not betray any inclination to 
interfere with the Pan-German propaganda; it was 
even assisted in Vienna, although its final objects 
were quite openly vowed. An independent Austria 
is incompatible with Pan-German ambitions. 

The true cause of Austria's policy of oppression 
is Pan-German Imperialism. It is important to 
bear this fact in mind, and especially in this connec- 
tion. 

There is an instructive task in store for the states- 
man of the future in the study of contemporary 
opinion upon the causes of the present war. It will 
be interesting to follow the unparalleled ingenuity 
with which the Germans in Austria and the Mag- 
yars aver that Serbia alone is responsible for the 
Great Slaughter. Most certainly Serbia has con- 
tributed to the cataclysm of the world-drama; but 
it is for the simple reason that she constitutes a bar- 
rier to the Drang nach Osten, to German Imperial- 
ism. 

To make Germany mistress of the Mediterranean 
route, of Asia Minor and Bagdad, the Balkans had 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 157 

to become a German province. In little Serbia Ger- 
many found an implacable adversary, of unique po- 
litical ability, and unshakably devoted to her patri- 
otic ideals and Nationalist mission. 

During the whole of their past history the Ger- 
mans have never been a political nation in the true 
sense of the word. They were incapable of creat- 
ing a clear and simple State ideal. Their Holy 
Roman Empire was a monstrosity, a caricature of 
all political common sense. The Empire was an ab- 
solutely vague conception, devoid of all political 
actuality; it was the very opposite of a State, it was 
a dream, it was Imperialism clothed in the mystic 
masks of the Middle Ages. Even in the nineteenth 
century the Germans could not rid themselves of 
this conception, which smothered all rational politi- 
cal development. During the course of centuries 
Germany has not produced one single original po- 
litical idea. If we study German political theories 
we shall find that the Germans are behind all other 
nations in this respect. 

Germany has remained a complete stranger to all 
the great modern ideas of liberty, which were con- 
ceived in other countries. Her greatest sons have 
always detested political life. The fate of the coun- 
try was in the past lost sight of in the cloudland of 
vague cosmopolitan sentiment. 

Whenever one of these minds has ventured to ap- 
proach the problem of State evolution, one feels the 
complete lack of originality. They create nothing 



158 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

new; all they give us are copies characterized by 
amateurishness, or a philosophy which has nothing 
to do with practical statecraft. 

The experience of 1848 likewise proved that the 
Germans are incapable of discarding political ideals 
which had formerly proved unrealizable. At the 
Frankfort Parliament the idea of the Holy Empire 
was still alive, and it remained for Bismarck, the 
only political genius whom Germany has produced, 
to evolve a practicable conception of German unity, 
by excluding Austria from the new Federal State. 
From that moment Germany became a Great Power, 
which is, however, not tantamount to saying that 
she possesses a highly developed political sense. 
The growing wealth of the nation gave birth to an 
unparalleled pride of race. Caste spirit and mili- 
tarism combined to make Germany the typical anti- 
democratic State. But yet she would not have had 
the audacity of aspiring to impose her will upon the 
world if Austria had fulfilled the just aspirations of 
the Slavs. Austria had the opportunity to reform 
herself, and at the same time to become more Slav, 
during the years that elapsed between the rise of 
Constitutionalism in 1860 and the foundation of the 
German Empire. But the Austro-Hungarian Com- 
promise, the greatest mistake committed by the 
Monarchy for centuries, was the great obstacle to 
the necessary reform of the Empire. In the Mag- 
yars, Germany found a ready instrument for the 
degradation of the Habsburg Monarchy. 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 159 

Since then Germany has permitted no reforms in 
favor of the majority of Austrian subjects, and by 
this very fact the downfall of the Monarchy has be- 
come inevitable. Austrian home politics were de- 
termined by the regime of the Triple Alliance. 

Through the Triple Alliance the New German 
Empire tended to resume the ambitions of the Holy 
Roman Empire. Dead Germanic aspirations came 
to life under new aspects. Germanism, led astray 
by its successes in industry and economics, desired 
to impose itself upon all the nations of the world. 
Although they possess none of the colonizing genius 
of the Anglo-Saxons, the Germans aspired to be the 
greatest colonizing nation in the world, and strove 
to attain universal dominion. Unlike the Anglo- 
Saxons, the Germans lack the instinct for creating 
centres of political liberty by a permanent assimila- 
tion of the conquered countries under a system of 
civic liberty. The sense for political transactions 
which avoids conflicts and strives to overcome ob- 
stacles by wise moderation is quite foreign to Ger- 
man nature. 

Having no political ability, they endeavor to re- 
place it by the brutal coercion by material force. 
Germany was to owe her dominion of the world, not 
to the wisdom and moderation of her statesmen, or 
to the prudence of a well-informed public opinion, 
but to the insolence of a military caste. 

The Germans have always shown themselves in- 
capable of reconciling intellectual with political and 



160 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

practical life. Either they are dreamers, thinkers, 
and philosophers who deprecate politics, or they are 
politicians who despise intellectual values. It takes 
but little sagacity to realize the decadence of the 
Universities and all intellectual life in Germany. 
Science has become a business, and German scien- 
tific men have renounced the austere simplicity of 
the great intellectual and philosophical era during 
the early part of the nineteenth century. 

Large cities have tended to spread the taste for 
luxurious life. The old-fashioned frugality has 
given place to an extravagance and dissipation for- 
merly unknown. Berlin has become the most vice- 
riddled city in the world. Nepotism is rooted in 
the whole of the State organization. In a word, the 
evil consequences of a too sudden acquisition of na- 
tional wealth and power are obvious in all walks of 
life in Germany. 

Germany has become the classical type of a par- 
venu nation. The too swift rise of the Germans 
has demoralized them and destroyed all social and 
political harmony. They have emancipated them- 
selves from the intellectualism of other days, and 
have devoted themselves to the cult of force with the 
complete insolence of parvenus. 

The Germans, the Magyars, the Bulgars, and the 
Turks — these are the four master-nations, the four 
Herrenvolker, in the sense of Nietzsche's brutal 
philosophy. The present war is best characterized 
by describing it as a war of these four nations, 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 161 

whose ambition it is to dominate, without permit- 
ting other nations to enjoy free and independent na- 
tional life. The victory of the Triple Alliance of 
hate, oppression, and aristocratism would mean 
death to all small nations. All the lesser nationali- 
is hateful and contrary to national liberty, the Jugo- 
slavs are reminded of the most tragic chapters in 
their history. 

No one can fail to see how a German victory 
would affect international life in Europe. It would 
mean the triumph of the barracks, of inquisitorial 
rule in all conditions of life, of the automatic dis- 
cipline, of a materialism laying claim to the absolute 
power of the Caesars. We should be dominated by 
the coarseness of a race incapable of creating a full 
and harmonious life. 

Law and justice would lose the traditions of po- 
litical liberty. The world would become a vast bar- 
racks where mediocrity would rule supreme, with 
the discipline of the drill-sergeant, and a total ab- 
sence of noble aspirations and individual enterprise. 

Small nations require independence and political 
freedom even more than great ones. What is to 
become of them in the barracks of the future? 
Their existence would be negatived, and they would 
be swallowed up in the great levelling machine. The 
struggle is therefore a struggle for a principle, for a 
faith, for the better life of the day to come. 

Therefore a grave responsibility rests with all 
those who desire to strive successfully with this re- 



162 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

actionary force, with all who desire to help in the 
creation of a new world. It were worthy of con- 
tempt, for instance, if Italy, in taking part in the 
Great War, were to imitate the procedure of Ger- 
many. 

A comparison between Italy and Germany will at 
once reveal a great contrast. Italy achieved na- 
tional unity at the same time as Germany. But be- 
tween these two State-formations there are many 
differences arising from the difference of mentality 
between the two nations. 

Modern Italy owes her most important ideas of 
public law to the Italy of the Renaissance. The 
origin of the modern State must be sought in the 
small Italian republics and principalities. During 
the sixteenth century Italy possessed many pro- 
found and brilliant statesmen, many able diplomats, 
who were forced to apply their genius to the modest 
affairs of a small State. There was no economy of 
intellect in the country. Besides many brilliant pol- 
iticians, the Italians gave us the first exponents of 
political science, Machiavelli and many others for- 
mulated the new political idea. In Italy there was 
perfect harmony between political and intellectual 
life. Her greatest men knew nothing of the radical 
aversion to politics characteristic of the finest Ger- 
man intellects. Hers was another world, another 
mentality. 

For centuries Italy, no less than Germany, was 
unable to create a unified State. Rome, the Church, 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 163 

was the most implacable enemy of national unity, 
whereas in Germany there was no such dangerous 
obstacle. United Germany was created at a far 
smaller cost in blood and effort than united Italy. 
And the sons of the creators of modern Italy are 
greatly superior in political ability to the sons of the 
victors of 1870. 

The State Austrian always remained a foe and 
stranger to Slovene character and culture. What 
the Slovenes are to-day, they have become absolutely 
by their own labor and their own energy, not only 
without the help of the State, but even in opposition 
to it. Indeed, the efforts of the State were more 
truly directed towards hampering the Slovenes in 
their intellectual development. They were rigidly 
debarred from all advancement, and only under 
pressure and very occasionally granted a few pitiful 
crumbs of national equality. Never has the State 
furthered Slovene culture, art, or science, but only 
generously permitted the Slovenes to bear the cost 
themselves. 

The beginning of this century ushered in an era 
of unprecedented intensification of the national 
struggle for the Slovenes. Although only a few 
hours by rail lie between Vienna and the Slovene 
linguistic frontier, Vienna was blind and deaf to the 
remorseless conflict for the Slovene soil. Whereas 
in all progressive countries it is an accepted law of 
practical politics that the governing body should be 
accurately informed as to the facts and conditions 



164 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

upon which the State bases its administrative prin- 
ciple, the soulless Viennese bureaucrat knows no 
world but his office; the conditions out yonder in 
the province are utterly unknown to him. This 
narrow-mindedness of the Viennese, whose political 
horizon does not extend beyond the Prater, is not 
peculiar to Vienna, but characteristic of all leading 
circles in Austria. Thus Vienna was blind to the 
fact that Germany aimed at a forcible Germaniza- 
tion of the Slovenes, and that all the German Na- 
tionalist organizations, whose task it was to extermi- 
nate the Slovenes, were but so many tools of Berlin. 
But the powers that be in Vienna merely watched 
this life-and-death grapple with true Austrian bon- 
homie not unmixed with frivolous indifference. 

The Slovenes regretted that the Monarchy pur- 
sued an unfortunate foreign policy, which rendered 
consolidation impossible. By an inexcusable act of 
distrust and utterly unfounded suspicion almost all 
the political and intellectual leaders of the Slovenes 
in the Littoral were thrown into prison during the 
days of the Austrian mobilization. Subsequent in- 
vestigation proved that there was not the slightest 
ground for these arrests, and that the accused were 
absolutely blameless. It is surely almost unprece- 
dented that men belonging to all classes of society — 
University professors, literary men, judges, lawyers, 
millowners, and priests — should be incarcerated for 
months, while not even the smallest offence could be 
proved against them. This was in the first days of 



THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIA 165 

the war. Later atrocities without number have 
been committed in the Slovene lands by the Austrian 
Government. Incarnation, especially of Roman 
Catholic priests, shooting, hanging, these were 
the means with which the Government tried to in- 
timidate the population and crush its national spirit. 
But the Slovenes are inspired by the conviction 
that they will save their existence in the midst of the 
great world-cataclysm. They can draw comfort 
from the knowledge that they were independent 
masters of their home before the days of Austria, 
and they hope to continue their existence under new 
conditions after Austria's downfall. 



X 

THE SLOVENES AND AUSTRIAN FOREIGN 
POLICY 

AN old State does not easily change its 
methods, and still more rarely and less easily 
will it alter the guiding principles of its for- 
eign policy. Austria's foreign policy remained the 
same as it had been under Metternich, reactionary 
and, above all things, the supreme weapon against 
Nationalism and the Nationalist States. Foreign 
politics remained exclusively the sphere of the Sov- 
ereign and his Minister, the high aristocracy. The 
various nationalities of the Austrian Empire were 
rigorously excluded from all co-operation in the 
problems that beset Austria's foreign policy. In 
this way an utterly anomalous state of affairs was 
created. A country with universal equal and direct 
suffrage and corresponding universal military serv- 
ice was absolutely at the mercy of the hopeless in- 
competency of an aristocratic clique in all vital ques- 
tions concerning the fate of the nationalities and the 
Empire. A wholesome political atmosphere was 
rendered impossible by the fact that the foreign pol- 
icy of the State was hidden from the light of public 
opinion, and, to render the anomaly complete, it was 
conducted with the object of maintaining the Ger- 
man and Magyar supremacy. In this environment 
of universal distrust, in this stifling atmosphere of 

166 



THE AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 167 

yested interest and hereditary authority, there was 
no room for true political freedom, for the free de- 
velopment of a healthy civic body politic. The few 
liberal reforms, sparingly granted by the December 
Constitution and carefully pruned by watchful 
hands, were almost lost entirely in the drab political 
workaday struggle. 

To the Germans, with their political stolidity and 
complete lack of political temperament, such a 
regime was quite tolerable. To the Czechs and 
Jugoslavs, with their strong political sentiment and 
democratic instincts, a state of political atrophy be- 
came an unendurable torment. The Jugoslav tem- 
perament desired a State constituted on free, demo- 
cratic lines, but a hidebound bureaucracy had noth- 
ing but conservatism and undemocratic sentiment 
for the democracy of the Empire. 

Slovene Nationalism at once found itself badly in 
opposition to the ideas of an utterly antiquated Im- 
perial policy, which had had its day at the time of 
the Holy Alliance, and was quite incompatible with 
the ideals of a young and democratic nation. We 
must admit that the contrast was not so glaringly 
apparent at first. The Slovenes were fully occupied 
with their struggle for linguistic rights. For the 
moment the struggle for a modest measure of na- 
tional existence was more important than the greater 
political issues. They even failed to realize that a 
Slavophil foreign policy would necessarily entail in- 
ternal reforms favorable to the Slavs. This train 



168 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of thought lay beyond the horizon of their leading 
politicians. The national issues of the day and the 
problems of home politics occupied public opinion 
to the exclusion of all else. 

The Slovenes could count upon the inevitable op- 
position of Germans and Italians. Germany em- 
ployed every resource placed at her disposal by the 
Alliance policy to make it impossible for a political- 
ly strong Slovenedom to block her way to the Adri- 
atic. Under no condition would Germany permit 
the sturdy Slovene nation to be master of its own 
fate and in a position effectively to resist all foreign 
influence. German Imperialism and Slovene Na- 
tionalism were sharply, irreconcilably opposed to 
each other. But an Austria which became the mere 
executor of orders from Berlin was compelled to 
aim at crushing the political existence of the Slo- 
venes. 

But the Slovenes were really doubly sacrificed. 
The alliance with Italy entailed upon Austro-Hun- 
garian internal politics an obligation to oppress the 
Slovenes and Croats of the Illyrian coast-lands. 
Orders, not only from the Friedrichstrasse but from 
the Consulta in Rome, were carried out with alacrity 
by the Viennese helmsmen of the State. The Slo- 
vene pariahs had to pay the cost ; no one considered 
them, and as they were loyal subjects, it was obvi- 
ously unnecessary to deal justly and fairly with 
them. But presently this game was played out, to 
the annoyance of certain purblind Viennese circles. 



THE AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 169 

Italy herself turned traitor to the pro-Italian for- 
eign policy. The cooling off of the Austra-Italian 
friendship produced an immediate effect upon Aus- 
trian internal politics. Austrian statesmen began to 
fear possible complications between Italy and the 
Monarchy. Not because the cause of the Slovenes 
is a just cause, not because it is in harmony with 
the interests of a democratic State, but purely in 
order to counterbalance the Italian element, the Slo- 
venes were granted a few concessions. These by 
no means amounted to full justice, from a Nation- 
alist standpoint, but only to an act of conciliation by 
no means proportionate to the true social impor- 
tance of the Slovenes in the Littoral. Those in 
power were too timid to undermine the foundations 
of the Italian influence. If political life in the Lit- 
toral had been democratized by granting universal, 
equal, and direct suffrage in commune and Parlia- 
ment, the collapse of the unnaturally privileged po- 
sition of the Italians would have been the inevitable 
and natural result. 

It is perhaps only natural that Slovene public 
opinion was never in sympathy with the Triple Al- 
liance policy; nay, with the sound, healthy instinct 
peculiar to a young nation, the Slovenes even fore- 
saw the terrible danger towards which Austria was 
steering. The instinct of self-preservation taught 
the Slovenes to favor a foreign policy of the Mon- 
archy which would seek a rapprochement with Rus- 
sia. The most eminent men of the Slovenes always 



170 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

felt strongly sympathetic towards kindred Russia. 
This sympathy was not without a touch of senti- 
ment. It was a platonic affection, without fulfil- 
ment or possession. 

Nothing is more untrue or childish than to accuse 
the Slovenes of being influenced by the "rolling 
rouble." Never did the shining rouble roll down 
into the fair land between the Drava and the Sava. 
The Slovenes built the schools which the Govern- 
ment refused to give them; they organized a Na- 
tional Defence Society, but they did it with their 
own money. It was a petty, somewhat cheap politi- 
cal device of the Germans and Italians to speak of 
Russia money. Whenever this accusation is 
brought forward the Slovenes can afford to smile at 
foreign ignorance of Slovene affairs. Without ex- 
aggeration, it may be said that probably no other na- 
tion can show so clean a record as the Slovenes in 
the achievement of their political independence with- 
out speculating on foreign financial support. 

Not only the German mailed fist was a strong ar- 
gument in persuading the Slovene intellectuals to 
feel kindly towards the English and French national 
character. France had at one time made the first 
attempt at uniting the Slovenes, and had thereby 
won the hearts of the Slovene nation. The col- 
lapse of the French Army in 1870 filled the Slovenes 
with consternation, for they knew that Germany's 
ascendancy would mean national death to them. 
The Slovenes sought to derive moral support from 



THE AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 171 

France, as was only natural for a people which was 
driven to seek its national preservation in an op- 
position to all that was German. The encircling 
tide was becoming a nightmare to the Slovenes. 
German speech in school, Government, office, and 
commercial life, German science in the foreign- 
tongued Universities, everywhere and always 
threats of further German encroachments — that was 
the terrible refrain of the past and the thousandfold 
echo of the present. "Escape from this baneful 
spell!" became the rallying cry of the nation. 

This was the frame of mind, these were the senti- 
ments with which the Slovenes entered into the 
World- War. They hated all that misguided pa- 
triotism, a hireling army, and the rulers of the land 
in Vienna admired as the most perfect phenomenon 
on earth, to wit, German character and German 
overbearance — German militarism. They loved all 
that had no connection with the foreign policy of 
the Monarchy, and every one whom Germans and 
Magyars hated and despised. 

It is easy to imagine the spirit with which the 
Slovene intellectual leaders hailed the outbreak of 
a war of which all the world knew that it was to be 
a Pan-German crusade. They realized the terrible 
ruthlessness of an anti-Nationalist, anti-democratic 
foreign policy, the suicidal madness of the whole 
German-Magyar system of exploitation hitherto. 
They also realized at once which were the true is- 
sues at stake. Millions were to perish on the field 



172 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of battle so that despotism and the tyranny of caste 
privilege and the vainglorious ambitions of two 
races might be supported and perpetuated. This 
slough of perversity was the result of a criminal 
political system, which did not aim at securing na- 
tional prosperity, but rather the social and national 
degradation of the peoples of the Empire. 

It is true that Austria has on several former oc- 
casions waged wars which were distasteful to the 
Austrian Slavs; both Germans and Slavs rejoiced 
in 1859, when the Absolutist regime collapsed ig- 
nominiously on the Italian battlefields, and in 1866 
the defeat of Koniggratz was not at all looked upon 
as a disaster. But these wars were not fought by 
an army created by universal National Service. 
The war of 1914 is the first war in which an Austro- 
Hungarian National Army — the expression is in it- 
self a contradiction in terms — is striking for vic- 
tory, or rather for defeat. The psychological con- 
sequences entailed by this war, and still more by a 
defeat of Austria, are incalculable. First of all, the 
nations have been dragged into a war which is di- 
rectly opposed to their own interests, and soon the 
consequences of a shameless system of foreign ex- 
ploitation are bound to appear. The blood of the 
Slav peoples will not be shed with impunity. Con- 
sider the impression produced upon the Austrian 
Slavs by the insolent threat of the Magyar magnate, 
Tisza, that he would exercise the right to reward or 
to punish whom he himself should consider deserv- 



THE AUSTRIAN FOREIGN POLICY 173 

ing of reward or punishment! This language 
breathes the spirit of such incredible arrogance that 
it would be truly marvellous if the Austrian Slavs 
were still in doubt as to the fate reserved for them 
by a Pan-German and Magyar providence. 

The eyes of the Slovenes were always turned to- 
wards the Balkans. As the inner workings of Aus- 
trian foreign policy were not at once apparent to 
them, they believed for a long time that Austria was 
seeking a footing for herself in Salonika, although 
Austria was merely carrying out the behests of Ger- 
many. During many years the Slovenes were filled 
with a burning desire for Jugoslav unity. The 
Jugoslav idea became the gospel of the Slovene in- 
tellectuals, and now the World- War has appeared, a 
gigantic writing on the wall, bringing great aims 
nearer to the Slovene people. The World- War 
may be compared to a hurricane of terrific force, 
bearing the seeds of new political ideas to millions 
of hearts, and the cause that is leading the united 
nations of Europe to make head against German- 
ism is identical with the old faith and principle of 
the Slovenes. 

There is a truly amazing analogy between the 
ideas underlying the life-and-death grapple of the 
Slovenes and all those ideas in whose name the na- 
tions are now waging war against German Imperial- 
ism, and it is a matter of no little satisfaction to the 
small nationality of the Slovenes that the full jus- 
tice of its own political struggles against the on- 



174 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

slaught of brute force is now openly vindicated be- 
fore the eyes of all Europe. Hitherto they stood 
alone in their unostentatious defence of the heritage 
of their fathers against the arrogance of a nation 
which is now shamelessly parading the doctrine of 
Force and Wrongdoing in all its nakedness. With- 
out exaggeration, we may fairly call the Slovenes 
brave pioneers in the struggle against the Power 
that unchained the pandemonium of the World- 
War. The struggle between Slovenes and Germans, 
which fills the whole of Slovene history, is in itself 
a glorious proof that the Slovene nation has the 
right to recognition and development. What the 
social body of Europe has in 1914-15 recognized as 
the supreme world-calamity has from the beginning 
been considered by the best of the Slovenes a crime 
against their own nation. Thus the stream of Slo- 
vene thought flows into the great river of world- 
ideals and world-happenings. 



XI 

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN- 
GERMANISM 

AT the beginning of this century the position 
of the Slovene cause was most precarious, 
almost desperate. The strength of the na- 
tion was frittered away in violent, but in reality 
petty, party politics. Instead of opposing a united 
front to the foreign enemy, so as to make as good a 
defence as possible against the terrible onslaught 
from without, the Slovenes gave themselves up to a 
bitter conflict between rival parties among them- 
selves, whereby a sound Nationalist policy was ren- 
dered impossible. And yet there was a truly gigan- 
tic task to hand, waiting to be faced by a good 
strong Nationalist policy. A nationality of one 
million and a half had to hold back and endure the 
full force of the economic pressure of seventy mil- 
lions. That the Slovenes were able to do this they 
certainly did not owe to their system of parish- 
pump politics, but wholly and solely to the innate 
vigor and vitality of the nation. But there were 
other dangers beside the great menace from the 
north. The Magyars in the north-east and the Ital- 
ians in the south were neither of them contemptible 
rivals. Under these circumstances the pressing 
need for national defence ought to have united all 
available forces. As a matter of fact, all the best 

175 



176 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

and most patriotic of our leaders did so unite, fac- 
ing the greater task and turning their backs upon 
unprofitable party squabbles. 

Perhaps it would be as well to give a short sketch 
of the Pan-German movement, and to describe and 
discuss its virulent hostility towards Slovene Na- 
tionalism. 

A short exposition will elucidate many important 
points of contact, and show our problem in its 
proper relation to the most important international 
questions of the day. And the first question to be 
answered in this connection is, What were the rela- 
tions between Germans and Slovenes in the past? 

In itself the form of this question is scarcely cor- 
rect. During the Middle Ages, and even in modern 
times up to the present, the conflict was not really 
one between Germans and Slovenes. The contrast 
was not one of nationality in those days, but of class. 
The German feudal lord oppressed the Slovene peas- 
ant, not because he was of Slovene descent but be- 
cause he was the subject of economic exploitation. 
The past knew nothing of Nationalist struggles as 
we know them now. National States and national 
culture did not exist in the past. The rivalry be- 
tween Church and State in Catholic countries and 
the supremacy of the Latin tongue both militated 
against the rise of Nationalism as we know it to- 
day. The social structure, as well as the culture of 
the past, was much more unified and incomparably 
more cosmopolitan and more equalized than that of 



STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 177 

to-day. Class distinction was due to economic posi- 
tion. In the Slovene lands class distinction coin- 
cided with the contrast between the German lord 
and nobleman on the one hand and the Slovene 
peasant and commoner on the other. 

While the ideas of the French Revolution were 
yet in a state of ferment German Nationalism found 
its first, consistent representative in Joseph II, the 
Emperor of enlightenment. The old Austrian 
State, prior to Joseph II, had revolved in the circle 
of ideas pertaining to the cosmopolitan instinct of 
rulership of the Habsburgs. For reasons of Na- 
tionalist administrative routine, and absolutely in 
the spirit of a Nationalist conception of State prob- 
lems, Joseph II desired to make Austria into a Ger- 
man Nationalist State. The experiment failed, but 
it was in consequence of it that the Nationalist 
aspirations of the Austrian Slav peoples were awak- 
ened. The Germanizing tactics of Joseph II found 
their strongest reaction in Hungary. The nation- 
alization of the Hungarian administration was an 
inevitable outcome of the reign of Joseph II. The 
stone had been set rolling. Hungarian National- 
ism, Chauvinistic and aggressive even from its birth, 
called forth the first passionate outburst of the Croa- 
tian national spirit. The spell was broken. So- 
ciety, politics, and State were becoming nationalized. 

The current of Magyar Nationalism produced a 
strong reaction among the Croats. And what of 
the Slovenes? The French interregnum exercised 



178 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

a great influence upon them, and as a matter of fact 
the best men among the Slovenes of that day were 
fully alive to the historical importance of the mo- 
ment. To a certain extent the Slovene tongue re- 
placed the German official language, in so far, at 
least, as the French tongue did not hold sole sway. 
This was not the only gain ; there was another item 
of vastly greater moment. Slovenes and Croats 
were then united in one administrative unit, and a 
strong precedent was created with regard to subse- 
quent aspirations towards unity. 

An important event preceded the coming of the 
French to the Slovene lands by only a few years. 
The Roman Empire of the German nation, that 
asthenic vehicle of the Imperialist thought of those 
days, had come to an ignominious end, and the 
House of Habsburg assumed its heritage, which 
consisted solely of traditions and in no sense of po- 
litical power. The succeeding decades mark the 
period of the political weakness of Germanism, 
which was incapable of rousing itself to political ac- 
tion. The Germanistic tendencies of the House of 
Habsburg pursue practical administrative aims. In 
a large establishment, which is to be run on patri- 
archal lines, it is undoubtedly more convenient if 
the records are kept in one language, and it is from 
purely utilitarian considerations that Austria desires 
to give a German character to her Crown lands. 

Nothing is more significant of the relations be- 
tween Slavs and Germans as such than the demon- 



STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 179 

strations of brotherly feeling in 1848. In the towns 
of Styria Germans hoisted the Slav tricolor. Ger- 
mans and Slavs fell on each other's neck like de- 
voted brothers. But this was of short duration. 
This tolerance ceased as soon as Germanism became 
conscious of new political strength. Already in the 
Parliament of Frankfort language was heard the 
phrases of which savored strongly of Pan-German- 
ism. It was a sound political instinct that caused 
Palacky to warn the Austrian Slavs against Frank- 
fort. He foresaw that a united Germany would as- 
sume a very different attitude towards the Slavs to 
that adopted by the idealistic and cosmopolitan Ger- 
many prior to 1848. In those days List, the politi- 
cal economist, expounded the fundamental ideas of 
the future Pan-Germanism. The Socialists Marx 
and Lassalle also betrayed suspiciously Pan-German 
sentiments. 

But the German dream of unity was once more 
buried for awhile. Until the creation of the Ger- 
man Empire, a constitutional reform of Austria was 
still within the limits of possibilities. While Ger- 
many was still a mere geographical conception, and 
while the multitude of small States still prevented 
the German Philistine from developing his innate 
arrogance, the transformation of Austria into a fed- 
eral State was almost possible. But after 1870 all 
efforts were in vain. German influence frustrated 
the realization of the Bohemian fundamental Ar- 
ticles. But an Emperor's word had to be broken to 
prevent their realization. 



180 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

The foundation of the German Empire created 
that accumulation of forces which tended with ever- 
increasing impetus towards world-dominion. Aus- 
trian Slavdom was an obstacle in the way and had 
therefore to be eliminated ; but whereas during the 
first years of the German- Austrian Alliance diplo- 
matic intimidation was employed to influence Aus- 
trian affairs, these methods were subsequently re- 
placed by those of organized agitation and propa- 
ganda. 

The "German School Union" (Deutscher Schul- 
verein) and "The Southern March" {Die Sudmark) 
were the two associations which were to achieve the 
denationalization of the Slovenes. Pan-Germanism 
spared no effort in the inauguration of its campaign 
at the beginning of the present century. In 1895 
the total membership of the Austrian Associations 
for Pan-German propaganda — oddly enough, they 
style themselves "National Protective Unions" — 
only amounted to 240,000 members, and their in- 
come to 714,000 kr. In 1909 the number of mem- 
bers had risen to 600,000 and the annual income 
had increased by 38 per cent. 

The "Southern March" has no object, except to 
assist in the denationalization of the Slovenes. In 
1908 this association had 50,000 members and an in- 
come of 226,000 kr. The German School Union 
exists for the purpose of founding German schools 
in Slav territory. In 1908 it had 100,000 members, 
and its income reached the sum of 617,200 kr. 



STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 181 

These two associations were uncommonly active just 
before the outbreak of the World- War, and from a 
financial point of view, highly successful. The sil- 
ver mark of the German Empire travelled in broad 
streams to Austria. German financial institutions 
munificently assisted the German Nationalist organ- 
izations in Austria, and the Germanization of the 
Slovenes was systematically pursued with the help 
of monetary aid from Germans of the Empire. 

The most successful and the surest instrument for 
denationalization is the primary school. German 
primary schools are founded in bilingual districts, 
and Slovene school-children enticed into them by 
promises, gifts, and threats. Thus the Slovenes are 
not only faced by the task of neutralizing this dan- 
gerous activity, but also that of henceforth defray- 
ing the cost of their own system of primary schools. 
In communities with a German majority the State is 
not empowered to compel the parish to provide Slo- 
vene schools for the Slovene minority, and as a mat- 
ter of fact the State is quite well pleased that the 
community should undertake the denationalization 
of the Slovenes in place of the Government; where- 
fore in these communities the Slovenes are most il- 
legally burdened with the entire cost of their own 
school system. 

The Slovenes possess a comparatively strong or- 
ganization for the subsidizing of the Slovene edu- 
cational system. Erom small beginnings the "Druz- 
ba sv. Cirila in Metoda" ("Society of SS. Cyril and 



182 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Method") has developed into a powerful weapon in 
the Nationalist struggle. If we take into considera- 
tion that the Slovenes are one of the poorest of the 
Austrian peoples, then the subscription-lists and be- 
quests in favor of this Association bear witness to a 
great spirit of sacrifice. The "Druzba" is proof of 
the vigorous patriotism of a nation of peasants pos- 
sessing practically no capitalists. Slovenes of all 
classes have made bequests in favor of the "Druz- 
ba." Indeed, a regular system of taxation was de- 
vised to meet the case. We must also take into ac- 
count that not all Slovenes assist the "Druzba," and 
that the strong clerical party regards this organiza- 
tion with extreme disfavor. In 1911 the funds of 
the "Druzba" amounted to 1,139.700 kr., and in 
1913 to 1,203,225 kr. Expenses for 1913 amounted 
to 334,850 kr. and the receipts to 140,000 kr. On 
the other hand, in 1914 expenses had sunk to 301,- 
000 kr. and the receipts risen to 145,000 kr. The 
schools of the Association are attended by 2,618 
children. The activity of the Association is most 
conspicuous in the south ; Trieste absorbs the lion's 
share of its resources, and it can only afford to as- 
sist the schools on the northern frontier to a lesser 
degree, although there also the need is very great. 

But the Slovenes are not only compelled to fight 
for a national tuition, but for the very land they live 
in. Following the Prussian example, the Germans 
are endeavoring to transfer the land on the linguistic 
frontier into the possession of German colonists. 



STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 183 

This is the special mission of the Union "Sudmark." 
Until recently its operations were not brilliantly suc- 
cessful, in spite of a liberal expenditure of money 
from the German Empire. Up to 1908, 700 hek- 
tares of land, purchased by the "Sudmark" in the 
territory north of the Drava, passed into the hands 
of colonists from the German Empire. But these 
Germans failed to establish themselves in the Jugo- 
slav lands. Several of them left the country again, 
others got into debt. But the "Sudmark" disposes 
of a hundred means of corrupting the Slovene bor- 
der population. The Union renders pecuniary as- 
sistance, lends money without demanding interest, 
and distributes Germanistic papers and Pan-German 
literature generally. 

To neutralize this activity, the Slovenes created a 
protective Union called "Branibor," whose special 
task it is to strengthen the Slovene peasant and arti- 
san class on the linguistic frontier, which is to be 
done by assisting the Slovene peasant and artisan 
with cheap credit, advantageous loans, and other 
economic aids. It is the business of this organiza- 
tion to protect the Slovene peasant against the dan- 
ger of falling into the hands of the "Sudmark." 
But hitherto, the activity of the "Branibor" has not 
yet been so successfully developed as that of the 
"Druzba." 

Without exaggeration, it might safely be asserted, 
that before the outbreak of the war the entire Slo- 
vene administration was in Pan-German hands. 



184 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

With all sails set, we were being steered towards a 
Pan-German future. Even as regarded its consti- 
tutional law, the Empire of the Habsburgs was to be 
brought under the protection of the Hohenzollerns. 
"An Empire reaching from the North Sea to the 
Adriatic" — that was the slogan of the Pan-Germans. 
Very cunningly did Germany make her preparations 
for the annexation of Austria. 

During recent years Austria has ceased to be her 
own mistress. Not the official Government, ap- 
pointed for the time being by the Sovereign, but the 
German Nationalrat ("German Nationalist Coun- 
cil") controls the country. This body is a Commit- 
tee formed by the German Nationalist parties in 
Austria, and during recent years not a single higher 
official or judge has been appointed in Slovene lands 
whose name had not first been submitted to the Na- 
tionalrat for its approval. The Nationalrat had a 
suitable German candidate for every post and suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the appointment from the Gov- 
ernment. 

The net result of this policy has been that in the 
Slovene lands not a single Slovene has recently been 
entrusted with a higher official appointment or been 
made a judge, so that the legal administration has 
been systematically Germanized under pressure 
from the German National Council, and the Slovene 
element brutally thrust aside. Pan-Germanism held 
undisputed sway in the Viennese Cabinet, and even 
in some of the Provincial Governments. A thin 



STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 185 

veneer of the old Austrian manner was still retained 
by the bureaucracy, so as to give the impression that 
the good old days had not passed away. In one re- 
spect, at least, the ruling powers showed themselves 
conservative — the old slipshod methods and bureau- 
cratic pedantry, coupled with extreme dilatoriness 
and circumstantial red-tapeism, were retained in all 
their good Old Austrian glory ! 

Austria possesses no , local government in the 
true sense of the word. To deceive the world and, 
principally, to weaken the Slavs, the so-called Stat- 
ute Municipality has been created. Statute Munici- 
palities are municipalities enjoying a specially privi- 
leged constitution. These municipalities become 
regular strongholds of Germanism, as German Lib- 
eralism was exceedingly careful to bestow these 
privileges only on such municipalities as might safe- 
ly be expected to render yeomen service to the Ger- 
man cause. The Statute Municipalities developed 
into small Pan-German States within the State, and 
above all things, the so-called "Southernmost Ger- 
man towns" in Styria became veritable Teutoburgs 
of Pan-Germanism. 

The resources of Pan-Germanism were not lim- 
ited to the schools, State administration, and the 
Constitution of the community. Capital and eco- 
nomic development were likewise at its disposal. 
Alone of all the Austrian nationalities the Germans 
possessed a strong, old-established, middle class, and 
well-developed industries. The great Viennese 



186 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

banks are almost all in German-Jewish hands, and 
the Austrian Jews ape the Pan-German and Mag- 
yar system of oppression to the best of their ability. 
But not only Austrian capital but, first and foremost, 
German capital from the German Empire tendered 
its services to Pan-German endeavors. If we call 
to mind how mightily German industry has de- 
veloped within recent years, we shall realize how, 
like a gigantic nightmare, Pan-Germanism weighed 
upon the Jugoslavs. 

But all these weapons of a Prussianized, abso- 
lutely anti-democratic social system — which was 
what Pan-Germanism presently showed itself to be 
— were outdone by yet another danger. In conse- 
quence pi the absurd ineptitude of an utterly pur- 
blind diplomacy, the strict and exclusive preserve of 
the high aristocracy, Austro-Hungarian foreign 
policy became a shuttlecock in the hands of the Pan- 
German wirepullers in Berlin. Austro-Hungarian 
foreign politics were neither Austrian nor Hun- 
garian, but purely Pan-German. 

This, then, was the hundred-headed dragon 
against which a poor and democratic nation had to 
contend, and in its apparently very modest struggles 
this nation has revealed so much silent, quiet, and 
modest heroism, so much unassuming self-sacrifice ! 

This was not only a struggle for the native lan- 
guage, but a fight for national existence in every 
meaning of the word. In their efforts to reach 
Trieste the Pan-Germans sought to efface the Slo- 



STRUGGLE AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM 187 

venes. Every means justified this end. The school 
was pressed into the service of Pan-German bru- 
tality. The Slovenes, who, being farmers, are more 
attached to their native soil than other nations, were 
to be ousted from the possession of what they prized 
most dearly — their heritage of the soil. The wheels 
of the administration were greased with Prussian 
oil, and the result was a peculiar and ill-assorted 
union between Old Austrian go-as-you-please 
methods and the pride and arrogance of Prussian 
Junkerdom. Added to this was an irksome, merci- 
less, economic coercion, which sought to bring the 
whole of Slovene agriculture and industry under the 
control of Pan-German capital. 

And against all this a democratic people had to 
contend, a people which had realized the ideals of 
social and socialistic equality in its midst — without 
capital, seventy times smaller in number than its 
mighty enemy in the north, whose increasing stature 
apprehension. 



XII 
SLOVENES AND ITALIANS. 

I. LAND AND PEOPLE. 

Administration, Courts of Justice, School System, 
and Social Conditions in the Littoral. 

THOSE parts of the territory formerly known 
as the Illyrian Kingdom, and partially in- 
habited by Italians, comprise the countries 
of Gorica-Gradiska, the town of Trieste with its 
territory, and Istria. These three provinces are ad- 
ministered by the Government of Trieste and form 
an administrative unit. Beside the State adminis- 
tration in Austria there is here the self-government 
of the crownlands; beside the State legislation 
there is the legislation of the diets. 

The Illyrian Littoral — the name recalls the days 
of Napoleon when the terre irredente were united 
with the Austrian Jugoslav lands, under the joint 
names of pays illyriens — is divided into three prov- 
inces, viz : Gorica-Gradiska, Trieste, and Istria. 
Each crownland possesses its own legislative body 
in its own Diet, and its self-governing administra- 
tion, founded on the Constitution of 1861, which 
defined the boundary between the powers of the 
State and those of the province. 

The eastern frontier of Gorica-Gradiska coin- 
188 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 189 

cides with that of Austria. It is well defined, first 
by a chain of mountains, and then by a small river, 
the Indrio, but a little farther on the frontier is less 
satisfactorily defined by a line drawn somewhat un- 
fortunately across the plain of Friuli. The country 
of Gorica falls naturally into four districts, viz : the 
mountains, the Kras, the Vipava valley, and the 
plain. The first three are inhabited by Jugoslavs, 
the last-mentioned is altogether Italian. Nothing 
would be more just and natural from the point of 
view of nationality than to divide this territory. 

The question of Italy's natural boundaries forms 
an interesting chapter in itself. One of the argu- 
ments heard most frequently is that Italy requires 
Gorica, Istria, and Trieste, because these territories 
constitute Italy's natural strategic boundary. In 
fact, Italy's one-sided claim to a strategic boundary 
cannot fail to provoke an equal desire in her neigh- 
bours. 

Italian geographers have not yet decided among 
themselves whether to adopt the line of the Julian 
Alps as the boundary created by Nature. It is more 
a poetic aspiration than a fact of political geography 
that the Italian frontier passes along the Carnian 
and Julian Alps from Trbiz (Tarvis) down to the 
Gulf of Quarnero. The fact is that the Julian Alps 
are broken up by wide valleys and that this ring of 
mountains is by no means a connected chain. The 
whole length of the range is 260 km., and only 80 
km., from the Predil to the Idrica, form an uninteiv 



190 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

rupted Alpine range. The Baca and Idrica valleys 
are a couple of deep and wide expanses which com- 
pletely break the continuity of the Julian Alps. The 
district between the Baca valley and the Vipava 
valley is crossed by a central range possessing no 
sharply defined profile at all. And who would ven- 
ture to assert that the plateau of the Carso is at all 
suitable for a strong demarcation of the Italian 
frontier? The phrase concerning Italy's "natural 
boundaries" is a political catchword of the usual 
type, without any real justification. 

That Nature has indicated Italy's true confines 
is another patriotic sentence. The climate of Vi- 
pava and Gorica is more meridional than that of 
Carniola ; the vegetation is richer, but still that does 
not prove that "these districts belong to Italy." The 
"eternally blue sky of Italy" broods equally over 
Dalmatia, Hercegovina, and many other countries. 

The problem of Trieste and Istria is far more 
complicated. It is unnatural that Trieste and Istria 
should be separated from their Hinterland, with 
which they have been united for so many centuries, 
during which they have formed a political unit with 
Carniola. Trieste detached from its hinterland has 
really lost its raison-d'etre. 

Let us return to the problem of the moment. It is 
not possible to divide Istria and the territory of 
Trieste into distinct parts, like the county of Gorica. 
At the best only the towns of the western coast of 
Istria could be described as Italian. But even here 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 191 

one ought to take into account the shifting of the 
balance of racial preponderance. On the west coast 
of Istria the towns are mostly Italian and Jugoslav, 
but on the coast the Jugoslav element is steadily on 
the increase. The town of Trieste is occupied by 
both races, like the west coast of Istria. Trieste is 
at the same time an Italian and a Jugoslav town. It 
is impossible to divide the races. For good or for 
evil the two are compelled to dwell together. 

An examination of the figures of the official sta- 
tistics will show that the majority of the population 
of the Littoral is Jugoslav. According to the latest 
census, that taken in 1910, the Littoral is inhabited 
by 437,385 Slavs and only 356,495 Italians. If we 
compare the three countries of the Littoral, we shall 
find that in two of them the Jugoslavs are even in 
overwhelming majority. In Gorica-Gradiska there 
is a majority of 154,750 Jugoslavs opposed to a 
minority of 90,119 Italians. In Istria the Jugoslavs 
number 220,382 and the Italians only 145,525. It 
is only in Trieste that the Italians are in a majority. 
The town has 118,959 Italian and 60,074 Jugoslav 
inhabitants. 

Official statistics distinctly tend to understate the 
true number of the Slavs in favour of that of the 
Italians. The Italians, although well aware that the 
result of every census is calculated to the detriment 
of the Slavs, maintain that the Government, in tak- 
ing the census, magnifies the number of the Slavs. 
Nothing could be farther from the truth than such a 



192 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

statement. If the Government were to deal justly, 
it would order a census in which not only the lan- 
guage of daily intercourse but the native tongue of 
the individual would be taken into account, and the 
Italians would probably be far from satisfied with 
the result of a census taken on such just and reason- 
able lines. 

In the number of votes recorded in the Reichsrat 
elections for the Slovene candidate, however, we 
possess an excellent means of checking whether the 
results of the census are false or accurate. As the 
vote for the Reichsrat is universal and direct, it is 
an easy matter to obtain the statistics of the voting. 
In the electoral districts of the City of Trieste the 
Slovene candidate in the last Reichsrat elections 
polled 9,119 votes, although the first, unrevised 
census only accounted for 45,731 Slovenes. If Ital- 
ian Nationalist statistics are true, the purely absurd 
deduction would be, that every other Slovene had a 
vote, and that the Slovene population included prac- 
tically no children and minors ! 

In the Reichsrat elections of 1911 the Slovene 
Nationalist Party polled a total of 10,659 votes in 
the town and territory of Trieste, and the Italian 
Nationalist candidates a total of 14,337 votes. In 
the City of Trieste the Italians polled 13,145 votes 
(or 70 per cent.) and the Jugoslavs 5,647 votes (or 
30 per cent.). In the territory of Trieste the Jugo- 
slavs polled 5,006 votes (or 81 per cent.), and the 
Italians only 1,192 (or 19 per cent.). 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 193 

The result in the City of Trieste was the follow- 
ing: 1st electoral district, 2,586 Italian Liberal, 
1,168 Slovene National votes; 2nd electoral district, 
4,734 Italian Liberal, 2,399 Slovene National votes; 
3rd electoral district, 4,047 Italian Liberal, 1,006 
Slovene National votes; 4th electoral district, 1,778 
Italian Liberal and 1,074 Slovene votes. 

On the strength of these simple facts we can safely 
assume that the population of Trieste and environs 
represents 42.63 per cent., the Italian 57.37 per cent. 
The ballot, after all, affords striking proof of the 
contrary. As a matter of fact, the Slav population 
of Trieste has of late increased considerably. But on 
the other hand, it is an equally remarkable fact that 
in 1851 Trieste was more of a Slav city than it is 
now. In that year the number of Slovene inhabitants 
of the town amounted to 29.71 per cent, of the entire 
population. In 1880 the Slovenes numbered 21.79 
per cent., and in 1900, when the whole apparatus of 
the Italian local administration was employed to 
minimize the number of the Slovenes, the percent- 
age sank to barely 16.35 per cent. 

Apart from Trieste, there are two other towns in 
the Illyrian Littoral where the struggle between Ital- 
ians and Jugoslavs is exceedingly keen. These are 
the towns of Gorica and Pola. In Gorica, which lies 
in Slav territory, 10,792 Jugoslavs are opposed to 
14,812 Italians. The latter are, however, scarcely 
in an absolute majority to-day, because the town has 
several thousand German inhabitants as well. Dur- 



194 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

ing the last elections for the Viennese Parliament, 
1911, the Italian candidate polled in Gorica 1,792 
votes and the Jugoslav candidate 1,166 votes. In 
Pola the elections yielded a similar result. The 
Jugoslav candidate polled 3,428 votes and the Ital- 
ian candidate 3,877. According to the official cen- 
sus Pola has 15,931 Jugoslav, 29,108 Italian, and 
9,046 German inhabitants. 

In June, 1913, there was an election of the Diet 
of Trieste. The Neue Freie Presse (Vienna) of 
June 4th, wrote as follows on these elections : "The 
National Liberal Italians inaugurated their electoral 
campaign with great zeal. In all their meetings the 
decision of the Germans to vote with the National 
Liberal Italians was sympathetically emphasized." 

On June 14th the Neue Freie Presse wrote : "The 
elections of the general electoral class for the Diet of 
Trieste threatened also this time to introduce Slo- 
vene members for the City of Trieste into the Diet. 
The German electors who usually put forward inde- 
pendent candidates decided this time to abstain from 
doing so and to support the National Liberal can- 
didates against the Slovenes. The result was that 
of the sixteen mandates of the City of Trieste, eleven 
were carried by Italian Liberals and five by Italian 
Socialists. The Tribuna (Rome) joyfully hails the 
assistance which the Germans of Trieste so disinter- 
estedly tendered their Italian fellows, who were 
hard pressed by the Slovenes and Social Democrats. 
In this alliance the Tribuna sees the germ of deep- 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 195 

reaching transformation in the mutual relations be- 
tween Germans and Italians, who, being equally 
threatened by Pan-Slavism, should forget the old 
contrasts and defend their cultural interests shoulder 
to shoulder." 

Germans and Italians were also allies in the mu- 
nicipal election in Gorica, March, 1914. The Neue 
Freie Presse, of March 29th, published the following 
information from its Gorica correspondent: "The 
local German political union has issued an appeal to 
the German electors, calling upon them to vote in to- 
morrow's elections for the Italian candidates." And 
on March 30th : "They [the Italian parties] were 
joined by the numerous German electors." 

The Slovenes were defeated only because the Ger- 
mans supported the Italians. Italian irredentists 
elected an Austrian major. On the day of the 
Gorica elections Serbian students held a meeting at 
the University of Belgrade against Italian aspira- 
tions regarding Trieste and Gorica. A telegram of 
sympathy was sent to the Slovene political society 
of Trieste, "Edinost." 

The Italians are anxious to prove that the ma- 
jority of the Government officials employed in the 
administration are Slavs. As a matter of fact, the 
opposite is the case. The Austrian administrative 
system differs completely from the American. Local 
self-government, in the American sense, simply does 
not exist in Austria. The administration of the 
State is in the hands of professional public officials. 



196 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Only men who have taken their University degree 
and are backed by social influence are admitted 
to the higher responsible appointments. The official 
staff of the Littoral, in spite of the great Slav ma- 
jority of the population, is only partially Slav. 
There are altogether 130 Government officials in the 
Littoral; of these, 43 are Italians, 53 Germans, and 
only 34 Slavs. Among the officials employed in the 
Finance Department the number of Italian officials 
possessing a University education is four times as 
great as that of the Slavs. The same proportion is 
to be found in the Revenue Offices. In the Post 
Office the number of Slav officials employed is also 
merely one-quarter of that of the Italian officials. 
Further examination will show that statistics apply 
not only to the whole of the Littoral, but also to Dal- 
matia, Carniola, and Carynthia, for which Trieste is 
in some respects an administrative centre. The 
gross injustice done to the Slav population is amply 
proved by these figures. The Slav deputy for Tri- 
este drew attention to all these facts in an interpel- 
lation in the Reichsrat on July 9, 1913. 

In a polyglot country a knowledge of the local 
languages is an important asset. But the Italian 
officials decline to learn either of the other official 
languages of the country, namely Croatian and Slo- 
vene. They seriously uphold the principle that a 
knowledge of the Slav tongues would constitute a 
danger to Italian civilization, and refuse to realize 
that a knowledge of the Croatian tongue opens up 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 197 

the wide, as yet unexplored world of Slav litera- 
tures. It is obvious that in a province where the 
overwhelming majority of the population is Slav, 
every public official ought to be capable of dispens- 
ing justice and administering the country in the 
Slav language. The Italians were slow to learn the 
Slav tongues, but the Jugoslavs were good Italian 
scholars. Consequently the Jugoslavs have now a 
better chance in the Civil Service than the Italians, 
and hence the result that the Italian element is no 
longer supreme in the Civil Service. 

The Austrian Government has been outwitted 
for having introduced the Slav language into the 
law-courts, which up to that time had been purely 
Italian. But in doing this the Austrian Government 
was merely remedying an intolerable injustice, a 
flagrant violation of the laws of the Empire. 

A judge who administers justice in a language 
which is not understood by the accused is a crimi- 
nal. The honour, life, liberty, and property of a 
man often depend on the correct comprehension of 
a single word or phrase. It is one of the most 
elementary rights of subjects and citizens that they 
should be judged by men of their own nationality, 
or, failing that, by men who have a perfect knowl- 
edge of the language of the population. 

Public education in Austria is organized on a 
system which differs absolutely from American 
methods. In a wealthy country education may 
safely be left to private enterprise. But in a poor 



198 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

country the national education must be a national 
matter. And this is the case in Austria. But, lest 
education should prove a lever in the evolution of 
the younger (Slav) nations, the State — which is in- 
tent on Germanizing — and the German and Italian 
municipal and local authorities have always endeav- 
ored by every means in their power to prevent Slav 
children from attending Slav schools. In direct con- 
travention to the fundamental law, the municipal 
administration of Trieste refused to grant a primary 
school to a population of sixty thousand Jugoslavs. 
The school budget for the town of Trieste amounts 
to 3,666,000 kr. ; but not even a fraction of this is 
devoted to the Jugoslav minority, which is so con- 
siderable. The Jugoslav artisan and peasant is com- 
pelled to pay for the foundation and upkeep of his 
school out of his own pocket, and the Government 
does nothing to remedy this state of affairs. 

The State Government interferes with the pri- 
mary school systems whenever it is a case of arti- 
ficially cultivating the German element. The State 
maintains no Slovene primary school in Trieste, but 
there are no less than two German secondary schools, 
and four German primary schools in Trieste, all of 
which are maintained by the State. Only one-third 
of the number of children attending these schools 
are of German extraction. One-third are Slovenes 
and one-third Italians by birth. 

The Slovene School Union "Druzba Svetega 
Cirila in Metoda" spends almost the whole of its 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 199 

annual income on the Slovene schools in Trieste. 
Both capital and income of this Society are practical- 
ly a war fund against Italianization. There is also 
a Croatian School Union in the Littoral, which dis- 
poses of an annual income of 213,000 kr. and a capi- 
tal of 340,000 kr. This society defrays the upkeep 
of fifty-six schools; as the annual income of the 
Slovene society is 145,000 kr., this means that the 
Croats and Slovenes put together spend 400,000 kr. 
annually on their schools in the Littoral. The Ital- 
ians also have their School Union, the "Lega Nazi- 
onale." In 1911 this society had 42,041 members, 
its capital amounted to 1,128,382 kr., and its annual 
income to 613,931 kr. Being richer, the Italian 
school organization is naturally in a stronger position 
than the Jugoslav societies. The reason for this 
superior wealth is that the Italian society receives 
financial help from Italy and that the Italian Gov- 
ernment has also seen fit to send contributions. By 
contrast the 400,000 kr. spent by the Jugoslavs rep- 
resent the contributions of poor peasants and ar- 
tisans. 

The part played by the Italian element would 
have disappeared by now if the administration in 
the Illyrian Littoral had been demonstrated before 
the war. It is paradoxical, but at the same time per- 
fectly correct to say, that the true preserver of the 
Italian element has been the Austrian Government, 
which by means of an anti-democratic electoral 
system prevented Italians from being politically 



200 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

swamped. The Austrian regime, with its repug- 
nance towards free democracy in any shape or form, 
was the protector of the Italians. On the day when 
direct universal suffrage was introduced both for 
the local government and the Diet, the days of Ital- 
ianism would have been numbered. 

The Italians even cannot claim to possess an aris- 
tocracy in the Littoral, because the aristocracy there 
is exclusively German. The Italians can boast of an 
upper middle class, but both trade and capital on a 
large scale in Trieste have always been in the hands 
of a cosmopolitan, non-Italian element. The lead- 
ing families, a few of whom are of Italian origin, 
are austricanti — i. e. tenacious partisans of the Aus- 
trian Empire, strongly opposed to Italian national- 
ism. 

If we, then, examine the position of affairs before 
the European War, we shall find that capital was 
controlled mainly either by foreigners or by Jugo- 
slavs. There was not one great Italian bank in 
Trieste. The wealthy bourgeoisie there is a mix- 
ture of all races; it is not at all purely Italian. The 
Italian stratum is the lower middle class, the small 
tradespeople. 

The Italians realized the danger that was involved 
in the creation of a Jugoslav middle class. The 
agricultural masses and the working classes are Slav. 
If they were supported by an enlightened Jugoslav 
middle class, the Italian cause would be doomed. 
The racial struggle became fierce as soon as the 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 201 

Jugoslav middle class began to take root in Trieste. 
As a matter of fact, it is of recent growth; it has 
been reproached with being non-indigenous. But 
nevertheless Trieste will sink into insignificance if 
the town is cut off from the Slav hinterland. One 
would deprive Trieste of a primary condition of 
progress by obstructing the influx of the new and 
industrious element which derives its strength from 
the wholesome breath of the soil and the small ham- 
lets and villages of the Jugoslav lands. 

II. THE PAST. 

It is the fate of history to be exploited by politics. 
Unfortunately, historic facts are used to furnish 
arguments for the exigencies of political life. As a 
matter of fact, if the argument of history is to be 
put forward in politics, it is necessary to subject it 
to very careful scrutiny indeed. 

It is intelligible that in countries where the Con- 
stitution has preserved the continuity of historic 
claims, the argument of history should still be taken 
into account. But in a country like Italy, founded 
on the principle of the sovereign rights of nationali- 
ty and constituted by the destruction of the historic 
claims of other States, the argument of history ap- 
pears as an anachronism. 

We do not deny that the Littoral was once under 
the Roman rule. Let us point out, e. g., that it is 
also in virtue of an historic claim that Hungary as- 
pires to the possession of Serbia and Bulgaria, 



202 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

which were in the Middle Ages vassal States of the 
Crown of St. Stephen. 

Moreover, it is open to question whether the Ital- 
ians of the Littoral are descendants of the Romans. 
As a matter of fact, it is extremely difficult to de- 
termine the different races which constitute the Ital- 
ian nation of to-day. There is only a little of the 
Roman blood left to-day, even in central Italy. 
What can we say of the Italians of the Littoral whose 
names, which are often Slav, certainly do not point 
to a Roman descent? All these questions of race 
must be regarded with infinite caution. 

After the Romans, the Littoral passed under the 
domination of the German feudal system. It is true, 
however, that the Italians might put forward a his- 
toric claim to Trieste and part of Istria, because 
these two provinces were at one time dependencies 
of the Republic of Venice. But it must be remem- 
bered that the Venetian domination over Trieste was 
merely temporary; even since 1382 the fate of 
Trieste has been linked with that of Austria. Ven- 
ice and Trieste were always rival cities; no politi- 
cal and economic union has ever existed between 
them. Concerning this Angelo Vivante remarks 
most truthfully in his "Irredentismo Adriatico" : 
"The town has a foe in front, in the flank, and in 
the rear; it is obliged for dear life to desire the 
death of Venice." 

The Venitian rule in Istria and Dalmatia was 
mere colonial exploitation in its crudest form 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 203 

Both countries were not treated like the other pos- 
sessions of the Most Serene Republic in Italy, but 
as colonies altogether foreign to the sovereign State. 
The Slav peasant was systematically exploited in 
virtue of a regimen which scarcely differed from 
the Spanish system of colonization. There was 
neither pity nor economic common sense. 

The past of the eastern part of Istria was alto- 
gether different. The country formed part of the 
Holy Roman Empire, and German feudalism took 
deep root there. 

It was the Holy Empire which played by far the 
most important part in the history of the Illyrian 
Littoral, right up to the nineteenth century. As a 
matter of fact, the Empire was the House of Habs- 
burg. To these southern countries the Empire was 
an abstract idea, whereas Austria was a tangible 
fact. Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola shared the 
fate of the Littoral. They were governed by the 
same laws, they were under the same administration, 
the same political principles and similar social con- 
ditions prevailed, brought about by the common geo- 
graphical position of the entire group of provinces. 

Thus it is clear that the historic claim based on 
the Roman occupation is confronted by a rival of 
more recent growth — i. e. the German Empire of the 
Middle Ages. Decidedly the historical argument is 
a two-edged weapon. 

Gorica-Gradiska also passed under the sway of 
German feudalism. The Counts of Gorica were 



204 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

German, and they sought to Germanize the country 
by encouraging German colonists and introducing 
German laws and customs. 

If, therefore, we are to accept the standpoint of 
the historic claim, it would be Germany, as legiti- 
mate heir of the Holy Empire, who would be en- 
titled to enforce her claim, rather than Italy. 

It is not so easy to decide whether Trieste was 
also incorporated in the Holy Empire, and, indeed, 
this is a matter distinctly open to discussion. In 
this connection it is interesting that in 1848 Trieste 
elected deputies for the Frankfort Parliament — in 
other words, for the Parliament of the German Em- 
pire. 

An insistence on the historic claim must lead us 
to conclusions which are not in the least gratifying 
to the Italian point of view. 

Besides this, not only Germany but France also 
might prefer, from the point of view of historic 
right, a claim to the Littoral. The French occupa- 
tion forms a chapter in the Napoleonic epic. This 
French occupation of the unredeemed countries 
forms one of the most important, interesting, and 
far-reaching periods of their history, and opens an 
entirely new vista in the fate of these countries. 

The French rule, lasting from 1809 to 1813, exer- 
cised a very special influence over the Littoral. 
The former attempts at centralization were logically 
continued. The Illyrian provinces were trans- 
formed into a kingdom of Illyria. The Littoral was 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 205 

united with Carniola and Carinthia. Up to 1848 
the Littoral, Carniola, and Carinthia were all under 
the same administration. It is an indubitable fact 
that the separate administration of to-day was cre- 
ated in order to weaken the Slav movement in these 
provinces. 

Under the pernicious rule of the German Liberal 
Party the Slovenes, the westernmost of the Jugo- 
slavs, were parcelled out in four provinces, and their 
political life was disastrously decentralized in six 
Diets. 

All these facts prove that the decentralization 
which to-day prevails in the provinces of Austria 
proper is not in keeping with the historic develop- 
ment of the country, but was arbitrarily created in 
order to destroy the Slovene political movement. 

The greatest obstacle to the progress of the Jugo- 
slavs in the Littoral lay, not in Austria's internal 
but in her external policy. The Triple Alliance was 
a most baneful event for the Jugoslavs of the Lit- 
toral. In Crispi's Memoirs one finds many instances 
which prove the efforts made by both Italy and 
Germany to compel Austria to adopt a pro-Italian 
policy in the Littoral. Austria's political weakness, 
sure sign of decadence, tolerated this shameful in- 
terference. The Austrian Government favoured the 
Italians everywhere; the schools, local government, 
the Church, political life — all were Italianized. 

Naturally, a policy of this type was fairly calcu- 
lated to foment the most bitter strife between the 



206 A BULWARK AGAINST GEPMANY 

Jugoslavs and Italians in the Littoral. It was exas- 
perating for the Jugoslavs to find themselves the 
victims of a hopelessly false foreign policy, which 
did not aim at furthering the progress of the nation- 
alties, but exclusively at establishing the overpower- 
ing hegemony of the Magyars and Germans and the 
destruction of the Jugoslavs. 

But the triple Alliance was not a permanent insti- 
tution, and when it fell into abeyance its influence on 
Austria's internal policy in the Littoral ceased. 
This change took place at the beginning of this cen- 
tury : the Government ceased to favor the Italian 
element, and sought to inaugurate a policy which, 
although it scarcely yet corresponded to the new 
social force and intelligence of the Jugoslav masses, 
at least was not absolutely hostile to them. 

The Government was still far removed from the 
standpoint of full national equality and true justice, 
and the regime of the "Red Prince" Hohenlohe, the 
man so detested by the Italians, did not mean that 
the country was administered in accordance with the 
wishes of the majority of its inhabitants, but merely 
that his system permitted the free development of 
the Slav social forces. 

One may read in every Italian dealing with 
Nationalist conditions in the "unredeemed provin- 
ces" that the development of the Jugoslavs was 
evoked and furthered by the Government. But it 
was not the Government, but a perfectly natural, 
social, and economic evolution which caused this 
progress. 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 207 

Of course the evolution of the Jugoslavs in the 
Littoral is making itself felt; they form the majority 
of the population, and we live in an age where, the 
masses command respect. The Slavization of Tri- 
este is due to the economic development of the whole 
of Southern Austria, and principally to the new 
Alpine railway by which Trieste is more closely 
united with its hinterland than it was in time past. 
Moreover, numerous Jugoslav banking institutions 
have within recent years become almost the pre- 
dominant factors in the economic life of Trieste. 
As the Italian intransigeant writer Gayda puts it in 
his book "L/Italia d'Oltre Confine," "There are 
branches of German and Slav banks, but not one 
exclusively Italian bank of any importance." 

Besides these economic reasons, there are certain 
ethical reasons. The Jugoslavs are at this moment 
a nation filled with all the pride of race peculiar to 
young and healthy peoples. Naturally, among the 
Slovenes, the vanguard of the Jugoslavs, this feeling 
of rising strength is bound to create a disposition 
to struggle yet more fiercely against the foes of cen- 
turies. The Jugoslav renascence simultaneously 
awakened a strong manifestation of public opinion 
and a very strong and vital intellectual movement. 
This movement equalized the Italian and Jugoslav 
intellectual forces. 

In spite of everything, however, the Italians reiter- 
ate that all is due to the Government. The truth is 
that the Jugoslavs are the children of their own 



208 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

labours, and that they have progressed, not by the 
support but contrary to the will of the State. 

With regard to Trieste, Austria was in a difficult 
position. To the detested Red Prince, Governor of 
Trieste, it was a fact that the Italians of Trieste de- 
desired a union with Italy. Former governors had 
sought to win the regard of the Italians by the simple 
expedient of oppressing the Jugoslavs, who formed 
the majority of the population. During the time 
of the Triple Alliance, Austria's foreign policy was 
the complement of her Anti-Slav home policy. Both 
Germans and Magyars with naive enthusiasm sup- 
ported a pro-Italian policy, which was clearly 
doomed to crushing defeat. While Crispi ruled 
Italy, it was an easy matter for him and Bismarck 
to force Austria-Hungary to favour the Italians and 
oppress the Jugoslavs. In all the larger towns, 
Italian influence was stronger than Jugoslav in con- 
sequence of an unfair and undemocratic electoral 
law. An absurd and reactionary Constitution of 
the Provincial Diets favoured the political oppres- 
sion of the majority of the population. The Italians 
were backed by a Great Power; the Jugoslavs had 
no one to support them. 

III. THE PRESENT DAY. 

The social structure of the Littoral cannot be 
summed up in the simple phrase, that the towns 
are Italian and the country Slav. Modern life, with 
its manifold means of communication, industry, and 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 209 

growing commerce, attracted the rural Slav element 
to the towns, where always was an indigenous Slo- 
vene population. Surely the simplest method to 
check this tendency would have been simply to for- 
bid the Slavs to settle in the towns ; but this would 
have been a too drastically undemocratic interfer- 
ence with the right of the individual to move from 
one place to another to be practicable in all its crude- 
ness. 

Trieste became a large cosmopolitan town, the 
Hamburg of the south, a great commercial centre of 
economic evolution, the greatest port on the Adri- 
atic, and within recent years it has increased out of 
all proportion by a perfectly natural process. By a 
second railway line, uniting it with Germany, Vi- 
enna, and Prague, Trieste became a cosmopolitan 
city. A city of such size and importance requires a 
great army of workers. The Jugoslav districts to 
the north of Trieste have a rural population which 
needs work. Trieste is close at hand and nothing is 
more natural than to go to Trieste to seek work. 
This migration of Jugoslav labour is an economic 
fact, a natural outcome of the economic growth and 
development of Trieste, and of course, as a result of 
this economic evolution, the Slav element in the city 
increased. The Italians offer a more ingenious ex- 
planation of the increase of the Slav population in 
Trieste. They declare that it is the Government 
which imports Slav labour. This is wrong. The 
Government has power to make war and to conclude 



210 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

peace, but the regulation of demand and supply in 
the labour market is a matter of economic evolution. 

Even English writers have questioned the fact that 
Trieste requires the Jugoslav hinterland for its eco- 
nomic evolution. But these doubters should remem- 
ber that for centuries Trieste has been in constant 
communication with its hinterland, that it always 
traded with the countries lying to the north, and that 
it was always in competition with Venice. One can- 
not lay too much stress upon the fact that Napoleon 
I assigned Trieste to the Illyrian provinces. 

Any one acquainted with the historic development 
of Gorica will not marvel at the fact that the Ger- 
man element has always been very strong there. 
Before the Habsburgs acquired the county it was 
ruled by the Counts of Gorica, who were of German- 
Tyrolean descent, and brought German feudal law, 
German customs, and German colonists into the 
country. Until quite recently an old aristocracy of 
German landowners still existed there, which mixed 
with the local Italian aristocracy until both were 
merged in the Austrian element. Nor was the Ital- 
ian middle class ever very strong in Gorica. 

The Slovenes developed a native Slovene middle 
class in Gorica, and the Italian contention that all 
prosperity, civilization, and education in the Littoral 
are Italian had long lost all meaning in Gorica. 

As Gorica is completely surrounded by Slovene 
territory, and the rural population is constantly 
gravitating towards the towns, it is not in the least 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 211 

surprising that Gorica is becoming more of a Slo- 
vene town from year to year. The citizen is depend- 
ent upon the dweller in the country, who is his best 
client, and the man from the country is likely to be 
guided by Nationalist considerations in the choice 
of the merchant with whom he deals, and to pur- 
chase for preference from his own countrymen; 
and thus a new native urban element grows up in 
pluro-lingual towns. 

In Istria the position is a peculiar one. Here the 
Italian urban element is strongest on the west coast, 
and the towns on the west have still to a great extent 
preserved an Italian character. The social stratum 
of wealthy landowners, about one hundred families 
all told, is very thin. These five score Italian land- 
owners of the better class exercise a privileged vote 
for the Diet, in virtue of which they send five Italian 
delegates to the Istrian Diet. These few families 
form the true mainstay of the Italian element in 
Istria. But they stand in sharp opposition to the 
Slav rural population. Usury is practised in its 
worst form by the Italian "signori" who have taught 
the Slovene peasant that his national and his eco- 
nomic interests go hand in hand. The Istrian urban 
lower middle class is not very capable of holding its 
own. This is because the inhabitants of the Istrian 
coast towns is also a farmer, i. e. he also cultivates 
vineyards and cornfields outside the town. But an 
economically hybrid position of this kind is incom- 
patible with the requirements of the times, and as a 



212 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

result, the land on the west coast is passing more and 
more into the hands of the persevering and frugal 
Jugoslav peasant. 

There is something very true and significant in 
the dictum that the Italian element represents the 
buttons on the Slav coat. The great mass of the 
rural population is Slav. These Slav masses were 
neglected, not only under the Venetians but even 
more so under the political tyranny of the "signori." 
The Slavs were given no schools. 

It was a favourite political method of the Istrian 
Italian to contend that there were no less than eleven 
different kinds of Slavs in Istria, who had nothing in 
common with each other. That different dialects are 
spoken in one and the same country is a thing not 
unknown eleswhere, and least of all in Italy, and yet 
no one would venture to deny that all Italians be- 
long to the same nation. The Venetian has con- 
siderable difficulty in understanding the Piedmon- 
tese, far more than the Slav peasant from Istria 
finds in understanding the Jugoslavs of Dalmatia or 
Bosnia. One proof of the speaking the purest 
Croatian language character of this argument of 
the eleven Slav nations may be found in the fact that 
it gradually disappeared, and it was finally admitted 
that the Istrian peasants are simply Jugoslavs. 

During a long lapse of time the Austrian Gov- 
ernment devoted itself to Italianizing the Littoral. 
The delegate Spincic was justified when in 1894 he 
indignantly exclaimed in the Reichsrat: "In those. 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 213 

days [1848] Istria was still designated a Slav land, 
and only to the Austrian Governments of more re- 
cent date are due the credit, and the honour that in 
consequence of their activity, in all branches of the 
administration, whole towns, villages, yea, whole 
districts have become Italian !" 

Blind and effete as ever, the Austrian Government 
indiscriminately echoed the phrases concerning Ital- 
ian culture and superiority, without ever approach- 
ing the nucleus of the problem. 

The nineties of the last century were especially 
stormy in these southern lands. In those years Slavs 
and Italians came virtually into collision in a hard, 
vehement conflict, which was waged on both sides 
with Southern heat and temperament. The destruc- 
tion of vines and olive-trees became a favourite 
weapon of political terror. The debates in the 
Reichsrat between 1894 and 1897 tell many a tale of 
this kind. 

It would be a mistake to conclude that the Jugo- 
slavs of the Illyrian Littoral dislike Italy and the 
Italians. On the contrary, they are greatly in sym- 
pathy with Italy's democratic life, her great past, 
and her present civilization. The Jugoslavs of Dal- 
matia, who are the most advanced among the Jugo- 
slavs from the point of view of the national prob- 
lems of the race, like Latin spirit; thus we do not 
find perpetual antagonism of the souls of two na- 
tions, and two opposing civilizations at war in the 
hearts of the Jugoslavs of Dalmatia, but rather an 



214 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

ardent desire for harmonious concord. But between 
Germans and Jugoslavs a similar understanding 
would be impossible. 

Jugoslav sympathy with Italian civilization was 
adversely affected by a particular obstacle created 
by the political conflict between Jugoslavs and Ital- 
ians in the Littoral. Any one writing a sociological 
history of Austria would have to make mention of 
the Slav renegade as a type. This type has flour- 
ished greatly among the dominant and privileged 
races, such as the Germans, Poles, Magyars and Ital- 
ians. 

A renegade is always the bitterest enemy of his 
compatriots of yesterday, and he acts as a kind of 
agent-provocateur among countrymen of his adop- 
tion. The renegade is the product of social egotism, 
and also of social corruption. It is not too much to 
assert that Nationalist struggles would lose much of 
their bitterness if this extremist element could be 
eliminated. In our case, it is safe to say that the 
relations between Italians and Jugoslavs would be- 
come more natural at once but for the renegade ele- 
ment in whose interest it is to destroy the possibility 
of national agreement. 

There is a strong German colony in the Illyrian 
Littoral. Unfortunately, it cannot be denied that 
the Italians were guilty of allying themselves with 
the Germans, of supporting them in the times of po- 
litical and administrative elections. 

The action of the Italians was inspired solely by 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 215 

a wish to weaken the Jugoslavs. A wise policy 
would have been one diametrically opposed to this. 
The Italians ought to have eliminated the Germans 
and sought to arrive at an understanding with the 
indigenous population, with whom they were obliged 
to live side by side. The first step on the part of the 
Italians towards establishing such an understanding 
would have to be the adoption of a clearly anti-Ger- 
man attitude. 

As for the Jugoslavs, they are forced to declare 
that it is themselves who are in the majority in these 
terre irredente. Yet they recognize the national 
rights of the Italians in a spirit of liberalism and 
justice. 

The Jugoslavs have never thought of imposing 
the prerogative of the majority, which has the sanc- 
tion of the democratic institutions of the day, but 
have shown themselves willing to respect the Italian 
minority and guaranteeing it full and free develop- 
ment. 

They are not demanding a position of supremacy 
over the other nation, but an equitable situation 
based on full autonomy for either nation. 

The Italians will find the Jugoslavs imbued with a 
spirit of conciliation, a strong desire and the frank 
and generous intention of achieving the goal which 
is so important for them, viz : the good understand- 
ing between Italians and Jugoslavs. 

This understanding would also be of paramount 
importance for Italy's Balkan policy. 



216 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

A reconciliation with the Jugoslavs of the Illyrian 
Littoral is a primary condition for any Balkan policy 
on the part of Italy. Failing this, any Italo-Bal- 
kanic alliance would merely lead to a repetition of 
the Austrian checkmate. Austria failed in her pene- 
tration of the Balkans because of the well-deserved 
dislike she evoked by her dualist policy, because of 
the Magyar hegemony and because of her oppression 
of the Jugoslavs. The Triple Alliance was first en- 
dangered and subsequently buried by the Nationalist 
questions which divided Austria-Hungary and Italy. 

The Jugoslavs see more clearly than the Italians 
what the situation of to-morrow is likely to be, more 
especially in the "unredeemed countries," concern- 
ing which the Italians cannot discard certain obso- 
lete conceptions founded on the ideas of a bygone 
day. 

The intellectual adaptability of the Jugoslavs is 
not a proof of weakness but of strength, which is in 
itself the result of an absence of false and ingrained 
traditions, and of a social system which is imbued 
with an invincible faith in the ideas of to-day and 
to-morrow. 

As far back as 1848 Cavour said of the Jugoslavs : 
"The Slav race, energetic, numerous, oppressed for 
several centuries, desires to emancipate itself com- 
pletely Its cause is just and noble that 

is why it is destined to triumph in a distant future." 

It seems as if the prophecy of the creator of the 
Italy of to-day were now to be fulfilled. Is it likely 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 217 

that one of the greatest events in history will at last 
solve the Jugoslav question, and, by giving it nation- 
al independence, put an end to the tragic martyrdom 
of a race that has hitherto been torn apart and con- 
demned to misery, but always full of life and en- 
ergy? 

This moment compels Italy to be guided by in- 
finite prudence in the choice of her attitude. 

No one can deny the great importance of the 
Illyrian Littoral for the Jugoslavs. After all, they 
are at home there. One must know the true national 
resources of the Jugoslavs to be convinced that this 
western territory of theirs is the true nursery of all 
that is most important for the life of the Slovene 
nationality. Culture and political life are well ad- 
vanced there in every respect. Statistics show that 
the number of illiterates is smaller there than in any 
other Jugoslav country. It is also worth while to 
note that the number of illiterates is proportionately 
far greater in the Italian section of the Littoral than 
in the Jugoslav section. The figures for 1910 are: 
Environs of Gorica (Slovenes), 14.64 per cent, il- 
literates; Tolmin (Slovenes), 15.12 per cent; 
Sezana (Slovenes), 14.19 per cent. ; Gradisca (Ital- 
ians ) , 1 7.97 per cent. ; Monf alcone ( Italians ) , 22. 10 
per cent. 

Trieste is the gate by which the Jugoslavs stand in 
communication with West Europe. The Italians 
took up a wrong standpoint with regard to this mat- 
ter. They demanded Italy's intervention in the war 



218 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

on the plea that the supreme moment had come in 
which to make sure that this territory should not be 
lost to them. 

Let us in a few words define the problem of Tri- 
este and the Illyrian Littoral. The majority of the 
population is Jugoslav. By having organized the 
masses and developed an urban middle class, they 
have become an important factor in the financial and 
economic life of Trieste. Contrariwise, the Italians 
are basing their claims on historic arguments which 
to-day are anachronisms. Their Italian Nationalist 
petite bourgeoisie is in conflict with the Slav la- 
bour element, and even with the Italian labour 
element, which is Socialist and Internationalist in 
Trieste and Clerical and Austrian in Gorica-Gra- 
diska. Moreover, that bourgeoisie lacks a strong 
organization and financial support, which is a fatal 
drawback in a place which is, like Trieste, above all 
things a commercial centre. 

All historic claims, the brilliant phrases of a by- 
gone age, all the Latin historical phraseology, should 
be abandoned. 

The unworthy prejudices which have warped the 
Italian spirit must go, and they must realize and 
admit that in the Illyrian Littoral, including Trieste, 
Gorica, and Pola, the Jugoslavs are in every way 
their equal. But one thing is certain. Certain prej- 
udices will have to be given up, and a certain con- 
ception of national justice accepted. 

The principle of protection for national minori- 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 219 

ties is still fairly new to the public. And yet — what- 
ever the ultimate fate of the Illyrian Littoral — it 
must be made a sine qua non that national interests, 
no matter whether Slovene or Italian, are duly and 
legally protected. A nationality law of this kind 
should enjoy international protection. The main 
outlines ought to be as follows : All members of a 
given nationality form the native community, which 
is organized as a juristic body and has absolutely 
autonomous control over certain branches of the 
administration, principally the school system. Every 
citizen, whether belonging to the Jugoslav or to the 
Italian nationality, must make a statement concern- 
ing his nationality and be registered in the records 
of his particular nationality, whose legal organiza- 
tion is based on these records. In order to obviate 
the possibility that the minority should be taken ad- 
vantage of in the administration of such spheres as 
come under the joint control of both nationalities, 
the law of proportionate voting should be introduced. 

A sane nationalism, founded on the facts of the 
present day, could reconcile Jugoslavs and Italians. 
The old contempt and the old race-hatred must be 
laid aside. The living National forces, the actual 
situation of to-day, must be the starting point, and 
not historical quibbles ; not supremacy, but equality 
founded upon the mutual recognition of reciprocal 
rights. 

If Italian Imperialism were to clash with Jugoslav 
aspirations, the conflict would be fraught with con- 
siderable danger. 



220 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

By refusing to recognize Jugoslav Nationalism 
and repeating the outworn formulae of another age 
the Italians can only damage themselves. It is ob- 
viously difficult to establish an understanding be- 
tween an old nationality, steeped in traditionalism, 
and a new one. 

The war of to-day partakes of both social and po- 
litical idealism. Italy's best men behold in it the 
great conflict between the ideas of yesterday and 
social progress; they look upon Germanism as rep- 
resenting social and political reaction. Consequent- 
ly they will have to beware of imitating Prussian Im- 
perialism. And this Imperialism aimed at strangling 
on principle, at crushing every movement towards 
national autonomy and national justice. This Im- 
perialism has proved itself the negation of civili- 
zation, the negation of true social progress. The 
great obstacle in the path of Prussian Imperialism 
was the Slavism of the Jugoslavs which barred all 
direct access to the East. 

The Austrian Government was the blind instru- 
ment of Pan-Germanism. By corruption, by brute 
force and German money, they sought to Germanize 
the Slovenes. In Croatia, Hungary was the cruel 
executor of Germany's will. The abrogation of Cro- 
atia's constitutional rights, her economic misery, 
incarcerations, the destruction of political liberty — 
these were the tender mercies of the Hungarian 
policy. Last, but not least, Serbia was the most ener- 
getic and the most obstinate enemy of Pan-German- 
ism. 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 221 

German action was the same in each country, but 
the political effects differed. But how much suffer- 
ing, how many vexations, what privations we had to 
endure in order to withstand the German Drang! 
The whole world ought henceforth to benefit by the 
Jugoslav tenacity. 

IV. THE DEAL WITH ITALY. VOICES OF BRITISH AND 
FRENCH PUBLICISTS. 

In the foregoing chapters we have set forth the 
facts, social, economic, and political, whereby the 
Jugoslav problem in the Littoral is elucidated. Start- 
ing from the principle that true, good policy is in- 
separable from a thorough knowledge of facts, the 
diplomatic negotiations preceding the Italian inter- 
vention have somewhat surprised us. The dynastic, 
strategic, and imperialistic considerations have been 
the decisive factors. The will of the nation inhabit- 
ing the territory whose cession is being contemplated 
— the Principle of Nationality — is not being taken 
into account. We feel as if we were turned back 
into an age when kings and princes shared, pawned, 
gave away and dowered their daughters with their 
lands. When the World- War is brought to a con- 
clusion European democracy will not fail to subject 
the diplomatic history of the Great War to a search- 
ing criticism. 

Nobody can deny the justice of Italy's title to the 
Trentino. On the ground of the principle of nation- 
ality, Italy had a right to demand the Trentino from 



222 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

Austria-Hungary. The objections raised by Austro- 
Hungarian diplomacy were quite peculiar. The 
question as to what should be done in future with 
regard to the title of "Count of the Tyrol," which is 
one of the titles borne by the Emperor of Austria- 
Hungary, is vastly more important in the eyes of a 
Viennese diplomat than that of the national affinity 
of the Trentino. After all, in the eyes of the Vien- 
nese courtiers, the principle of nationality is no bet- 
ter than red revolution, a horrible product of mod- 
ern times. 

It was no less a person than Mazzini who, in his 
book, "The Duties of Man," spoke thus to his coun- 
trymen : "Take a map of Europe and place one point 
of a pair of compasses in the north of Italy or Par- 
ma, point the other to the mouth of the Var and de- 
scribe a semicircle with it in the direction of the 
Alps. This point, which will fall, when the semicir- 
cle is completed, upon the mouth of the Isonzo, will 
have marked the frontier which God has given you. 
As far as this frontier your language is spoken ; be- 
yond this you have no rights." It is the Soca 
(Isonzo) line, therefore, which Mazzini claims as 
the national political frontier of Italy. 

The demands of modern Italy are far in excess of 
the demands of her creator. On April 8th, Baron 
Sonnino formulated Italy's demands from Austria- 
Hungary as follows: Cession of almost the entire 
province of Gorica-Gradiska, besides the Trentino. 
The new political boundary was to be drawn from 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 223 

the Rombonne, eastward of Bovec, down the Soca 
(Isonzo) as far as Tolmin, then via Cepovan east 
of Gorica, across the Kras at Komen, until it reached 
the sea between Monfalcone and Trieste in the 
neighbourhood of Nabrezina. Trieste, with Na- 
brezina, Koper, and Pirano, was to form an inde- 
pendent, sovereign State. The islands of Hvar, 
Vis, Korculja, Lasttovo, Pusac, Pelagruza, and 
Mlet were to be ceded to Italy. This was to be the 
deal with Austria. 

But at the same time Italy was also negotiating 
with Russia. But Russia was asked to promise far 
more than Austria in return for Italy's adherence. 
There was no longer any suggestion of a free State 
of Trieste. The river Rasa in Istria was to mark 
the boundary between Italy and the future Croatia. 
Part of Carniola was to fall to Croatia's share. 
That meant, that Russian diplomacy was to give 
the other part of the heart of Slovene territory to 
Italy. The other Slovene lands are not even men- 
tioned in these Russian proposals to Italy. As re- 
gards the Dalmatian Isles, Russian diplomacy en- 
deavored to arrive at a compromise between the 
principle of nationality and the Italian General 
Staff. 

Towards the Triple Entente Italy advanced yet 
further claims, which a Frenchman, Charles Vellay, 
in his "La Question de l'Adriatique," summarized 
in the following words: "Italy categorically — one 
might say, brutally — expressed a desire, which was 



224 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

not embarrassed by any considerations of justice or 
reason, and she plainly avowed her aim, viz : the 
destruction of all rivalry by sea, absolute ascend- 
ancy." I have purposely quoted the words of this 
distinguished Frenchman. Bare facts speak loudly 
enough. The future Croato-Italian frontier was to 
run south of Fiume. In other words, Fiume was to 
become Italian territory. The coast, from the 
mouth of the Zermanja to that of the Narenta, was 
to be handed over to Italy — five hundred kilometers 
of one of the most beautiful coast-lands in the 
world! All the Dalmatian Isles were to belong to 
Italy. 

'But even if Italy were to renounce her claim to 
Dalmatia, almost six hundred thousand Jugoslavs 
in Carniola and the Littoral would still be handed 
over to her. Even Italy's minimum programme, em- 
bracing only Trieste, Gorica-Gradiska, and Istria, 
would mean that the Slovenes would suffer a mortal 
blow from which they would never recover. 

In order to rightly elucidate the Jugoslav-Italian 
conflict, so far as Trieste and the rest of the Littoral 
are concerned, may I be permitted to quote the 
opinions of English and French publicists who have 
studied the problem ? This method will absolve our 
contentions from the charge of bias. 

We will give precedence to the British writers, 
and then quote the French in their turn. As a mat- 
ter of fact, the British are far less favourably dis- 
posed towards the Slovenes than the French, anions 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 225 

whom a display of "Latin sympathy" would have 
seemed more natural. 

Two influential British publicists — Sir Arthur 
Evans and Dr. Seton-Watson — adjudge the Littoral 
to Italy without further ado. Sir Arthur Evans 
expressed his standpoint in an article in the Man- 
chester Guardian on May 13, 1915. Dr. Seton- 
Watson, even in his more recent publicist writings, 
adhered to his views concerning Trieste, which he 
had already put forward in "War and Democracy." 
In this case we can only reply as follows to this ad- 
mirable writer, who has already rendered such dis- 
tinguished service to the Jugoslav cause. Since 
when has the principle of nationality been spoken 
of? Only since our own age, in which the national 
country State has come to be recognized in con- 
trast to the former city State. A city State, found- 
ed on the principle of nationality, is an anomaly. 
Now, Trieste, situated in Jugoslav territory, is cer- 
tainly a city, which might possibly be constituted a 
city State. But if the principle of nationality is to 
be applied, it must at least be applied to the whole 
of the Littoral, seeing that the territory of Trieste is 
an integral part of the Littoral. But as soon as we 
consider the Littoral as a whole, it is clear that this 
territory, the majority of whose inhabitants are 
Jugoslavs, cannot be claimed by the Italians on the 
strength of the principle of nationality. Seton- 
Watson puts forward the same point of view in his 
pamphlet, "The Balkans and the Adriatic." Yet he 



226 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

is obliged to admit that Trieste, detached from its 
hinterland, would be economically doomed. It is a 
natural thing that economic factors are the conse- 
quence of geographical and ethnological conditions. 
An economical anomaly is also bound to be a 
political and national anomaly. 

In his book, "Nationality and the War," Arnold 
J. Toynbee devotes a whole chapter to Trieste, 
under the title, "Trieste and Italy." It is character- 
istic of this writer, who often displays a striking de- 
gree of acumen side by side with a certain lack of 
detail, that he deals with the political future of the 
Slovenes in the same chapter. He is not very well 
acquainted with the past and present of Slovene poli- 
tics and national existence, or with the part which 
the Slovenes are destined to play in the fate of the 
entire Jugoslav nation. But as regards Trieste, his 
judgment is perfectly sound. Toynbee never doubts 
but that Trieste would have no future before her as 
an Italian city. "Trieste has a great future before 
her, and it is very important for the prosperity of 
Europe to keep unbroken all her economic links." 
He says quite plainly, that Italy's political economy 
ought to gravitate towards the Mediterranean, and 
not towards the Adriatic, as it does not belong to 
the economic sphere of the Adriatic. This is the 
reason why Trieste must not be handed over to 
Italy. Italy must be compensated eleswhere. 

Fayle, in his "The Great Settlement," also deals 
with the problem of Trieste. Fayle does not know 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 227 

exactly the strength of the Jugoslav element in Tri- 
este, and yet he lays stress upon the fact that the 
social claims of the Jugoslavs, no less than the 
economic relations between Trieste and its hinter- 
land, must be considered (p. 147). Fayle advocates 
the creation of an open port, and even suggests a 
"purely self-governing" regime for Trieste. 

These are the most important voices from Eng- 
land. British political literature is never quite free 
from the insular touch. In order to get a complete 
picture we must turn to the French publicists. 

First and foremost, it is M. Ernest Denis, his- 
torian of the Sorbonne, who bravely enters the lists 
for the Jugoslavs. In his "La Grande Serbie" he 
says the following: "Certains publicistes Italiens 
reclament ainsi pour leur pays non seulement Tri- 
este, mais Rieka et meme la plus grande partie de la 
Dalmatie. Leur programme, s'il etait accepte par 
leur nation, preparerait a l'Europe les plus grands 
perils et a l'ltalie les plus lamentables deboires" (p. 
315). ("Certain Italian publicists thus demand for 
their country, not only Trieste but Rieka, and even 
the greater portion of Dalmatia. Their programme, 
if it were to be accepted by their nation, would pre- 
pare the gravest perils for Europe and most lamen- 
table mortifications for Italy.") 

The great danger of Italian Imperialism for 
Europe is energetically exposed in this sentence. 
With eloquent words Denis seeks to rouse the con- 
science of Italian democracy. "La Serbie, libre, in- 



228 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

tacte, entiere, est une garantie de paix; la Serbie, 
mutilee, injustement depouillee de son domaine legi- 
time, frustree de prix natural de ses efforts hero- 
iques, est condamnee a une politique aventureuse de 
revanche." ("Serbia, free, intact, and complete, 
will be a guarantee of peace; Serbia, mutilated, un- 
justly despoiled of her legitimate domain, debarred 
from the natural reward of her heroic efforts, will 
be condemned to an adventurous policy of revan- 
che.") Denis exhorts Italy to refrain from engag- 
ing in a Bismarckian policy. Germany is approach- 
ing the abyss, and this in consequence of a mistaken 
policy of annexation. Denis has defended the ex- 
istence of the Slovenes of the Littoral with cordial 
eloquence. Ancient wrong and wrong about to be 
committed is always grievous, and the weighty 
words of the French historian are balm to the 
wounds from which the Slovenes are smarting. 

Modern political literature contains few books on 
statistical problems which are written in so sprightly 
and interesting a manner as Arthur Chervin's 
"L'Autriche et la Hongrie de demain." Chervin, 
late president of the Parisian Statistical Society, fol- 
lows Niederle's lead, in dwelling on the extreme im- 
portance of the Slovenes, whose task it is to prevent 
Germany from stretching from the North Sea, from 
the Belt, through to the Adriatic. Chervin, too, de- 
votes an interesting chapter to Trieste. On the 
strength of statistic facts, Chervin proves the error 
of speaking of the "italianita" (Italian character) 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 229 

of Trieste. Chervin has the happy inspiration to 
quote Sonnino, who said on one occasion that to 
annex Trieste would be to carry the principle of 
nationality too far. But we will let M. Chervin 
speak for himself : "Je pense done, tres sincerement, 
qu'il serait preferable pour les interets Italiens de ne 
pas disputer Trieste aux Slaves du Sud, et que son 
internationalisation serait une solution elegante, 
donnant pleine satisfaction a tout les interets en 
jeu." ("I therefore think, most sincerely, that it 
would be more advantageous to Italian interests not 
to contest the possession of Trieste with the Jugo- 
slavs, and that her internationalization would be an 
admirable solution, giving full satisfaction to all 
interests at stake.") 

The warm, cordial words of Chervin on behalf of 
the Slovenes remind us of the fact that it is to 
France that the Slovenes owe their first experience 
of the blessings of a well-ordered modern adminis- 
tration, and that the splendid administrators of the 
Illyrian provinces were true sons of France. Cher- 
vin, like Denis, earnestly warns the Italians of the 
dangers which an unjust peace will bring in its train. 

It is Charles Vallay who, in his book "La Ques- 
tion de l'Adriatique," most fully discusses Italo- 
Jugoslav relations. What a contrast between Vel- 
lay and those Italian publicists who accuse the Aus- 
trian Government of slavicizing Trieste! Vellay's 
point of view is altogether different. The fate of 
Trieste lies in the "impassibilite inebranlable, qui 



230 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

donne au slavisme le caractere d'une sorte de loi 
naturelle et fatale, dont rien ne parait pouvoir ar- 
reter la marche" ("the steadfast passivity which 
gives to Slavdom the character of a kind of natural 
and final law, which apparently nothing can check in 
its course"). Not the favour of the Government, 
but the inherent vitality and native strength of the 
Jugoslavs, has made Trieste into a semi-Slav town. 
It is to be hoped that Englishmen of the type of Mr. 
Marriott will make a note of this. Vellay fully 
recognizes that Italy's present policy will create an 
Irredenta compared to which the difficulties which 
Austria has had to face in the Italians of the Lit- 
toral and the Trentine will appear mere child's play. 
Vellay's whole book is a strong warning to Italy. 
In his final summary the author advances the fol- 
lowing principle: If the problem is to be justly 
solved, then Italy's political frontier must coincide 
with her national frontier. 

V. THE QUINTESSENCE OE THE ADRIATIC PROBLEM. 

The problems of Trieste and the Slovene Littoral 
are only part of the general problem of the Adriatic. 
A closer analysis soon reveals that it is a mistake to 
try to keep these two problems separate, as people 
unfortunately sometimes attempt to do. Italy's en- 
deavour to make the Adriatic into a mare clausum 
is only an extension of Italy's aspirations to the Lit- 
toral. The arguments put forward by Italy are al- 
most the same in both cases. We stand in danger of 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 231 

merely repeating ourselves if we devote a few lines 
specially to the Adriatic problem. 

The beautiful coast from Trieste to Kotor, with 
its picturesque fjords, and the marvellously beauti- 
ful Dalmatian archipelago, is such an economic and 
scenic jewel that no nation could resign itself to its 
loss, let alone a nation of such impetuosity in politi- 
cal matters as the Jugoslavs. An endeavour to keep 
a people of this type shut off from the sea would be 
an act with incalculable consequences. 

Now, what are the arguments by which Italy is 
trying to defend her action ? They are both Nation- 
alist and strategic. 

Italian Nationalism is inspired throughout by 
historical tradition. The fact that Venice once ruled 
as she pleased in the Adriatic is exhaustively ex- 
ploited. But did the ancient oligarchic Republic of 
Venice merit the name of a Nationalist State? 
Surely the old aristocratic republic was a most in- 
sidious foe to Italian unity, as defined by Machia- 
velli. What has ancient Venice to do with modern 
Nationalism? If Venetian provveditori misgov- 
erned the Dalmatian Isles, and fleeced and oppressed 
the Jugoslav peasant, that certainly conveys no claim 
for an annexation. A new age has dawned, and 
nations have the right to direct their own destiny. 
The modern Italian State owes its existence to the 
political principles of the age. To annex a country 
and its inhabitants without consulting their wishes 
is a method of the past. Ask of the Jugoslavs 



232 A BULWAEK AGAINST GERMANY 

whether they desire to become Italian citizens. Let 
the plebiscite which is the logical consequence of the 
principle of national self-determination, decide the 
problem over which Italians and Jugoslavs are di- 
vided. 

We are often met by the argument that the Adri- 
atic has never long had two masters, but that by a 
kind of historic law it was invariably the master of 
either the east or the west coast who was also lord 
of the Adriatic. A contention of this kind is al- 
ways somewhat hazardous. Why should not two 
States share the possession of the Adriatic? The 
days when a mare clausum in peace time was justi- 
fiable are long dead and gone, and surely this is an 
appropriate moment to point out that it was pre- 
cisely England which killed the principle of the mare 
clausum in her wars with the Spaniards and the 
Portuguese. And now the creation of a mare 
clausum in another part of the world is being seri- 
ously contemplated, and would certainly not be to 
the advantage and profit of English economy and 
sea-trade. 

Now for the strategic point of view. Italy should 
be sole mistress of the Adriatic because her flat east 
coast is too exposed from a military point of view. 
But Italians cannot ignore the fact that a young 
State, even though numbering twelve million inhabit- 
ants, is bound, during the early period of its exist- 
ence, to pass through most trying financial and ad- 
ministrative crisis — the infantile diseases of a State, 



SLOVENES AND ITALIANS 233 

so to say. Have the Italians already forgotten the 
record of their own first twenty years or so ? And 
the United State of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes 
will have to face far greater crises than these. And 
is it likely that any nation will be in love with arma- 
ments after this war? Surely it is more probable 
that pacifist counsels will prevail and imperialistic 
programmes of armament meet with an internation- 
al veto ! 

Most certainly Italy possesses important economic 
interests in the ^Egean and in Asia Minor; but sure- 
ly it is not necessary for her to close a whole sea 
in order to have a base for military operations! 
The great colonial peoples of the West, such as the 
English, have acted quite differently. First the 
trader entered the country then the soldier and the 
official. 

The strategic argument advanced by Italy shows 
even less sound common sense. In order to protect 
the east coast of Italy, the greater part of the Dal- 
matian coast is to become Italian, and Split and 
Dubrovnik (Ragusa) are to lie within range of 
Italian guns. The foundation upon which this argu- 
ment rests is as weak as that other, demanding that 
Italy should occupy the Littoral for strategic rea- 
sons. But a glance at an orographic map will suf- 
fice to show that the Illyrian coast-land is not sepa- 
rated from the orographic system of the Balkans. 

It is always best to be frank. Let the Italians con- 
fess that they need the sole control over the Adriatic 
in order to economically dominate the Jugoslav 



234 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

State of the future. Jugoslavia is to be a dumping- 
ground for Italian industry, and Italian trade is to 
have the monopoly in the Balkans, so that the de- 
velopment of a native industry may be checked from 
the very outset. Perhaps they even think of direct- 
ing the stream of Italian emigration towards the 
Balkans, and dotting the country with Italian colo- 
nies. 

It is never wise to tell tales out of school. An 
Italian political economist, Mario Alberti by name, 
has explained why Italy must be sole mistress of the 
Adriatic. If Italy possesses the Adriatic it will be 
the leading Power in the Mediterranean; in other 
words, Italy requires the Adriatic as an Italian lake, 
in order to obtain the hegemony in the Mediter- 
ranean. 

The Convention, a secret diplomatic treaty, 
whereby the Adriatic was handed over to Italy, 
was concluded at a time when (the spring of 1915) 
the Russian front in Poland had already begun to 
give way. It was extorted from Russia at the mo- 
ment of a national and military catastrophe. But 
shall a treaty by which the fate of a million human 
beings is decided not be amenable to the same laws 
which apply to every ordinary private contract ? 

Is it not an immeasurable tragedy, that by the 
signature under a secret treaty more than a million 
human beings are to be annexed against their will, 
and the Jugoslav State to be exposed to a position 
of constant economic and political peril? Do not 
these considerations bring us back to the idea that 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 235 

secret diplomatic treaties are a disease in politics? 
Can European democracy permit this abrogation of 
the sovereign right of nations? 

In one of the most distinguished English reviews 
a pro-Italian writer has expressed the view that 
England should not interfere in the difference be- 
tween Italians and Jugoslavs. In this case the En- 
glish and Americans should take it that silence is 
golden. If the advice of the above-mentioned writer 
is taken there will in the future be a new Alsace- 
Lorraine on the Adriatic. But there was the French 
population of Alsace-Lorraine, no more than 210,- 
000, and it caused European unrest. In Germany is 
a Danish Question, although there are only 160,000 
Danes. We had thought that in this age the sense 
of national justice was alive. But he who turns a 
deaf ear to the cry of the oppressed is likewise 
guilty of a terrible injustice. What has it profited 
England that in time past she has always sided with 
the Turks against the . Balkan nations ? In the 
World War Germany, England's greatest enemy, 
was mistress at the Golden Horn, and Britain lost a 
hundred thousand of her best and bravest in killed 
and wounded in Gallipoli. Only a just and generous 
policy, which is never deaf to the voice of the op- 
pressed, is truly practical and therefore successful. 

The unique, fair and just solution of the Jugoslav- 
Italian problem in Gorica-Gradiska, Triest and 
Istria is the plebescite, taken by authorities of the 
United States during occupation of these countries 
by the American army. 



XIII 

SLOVENE ECONOMICS. 29 

IT IS not possible to arrive at a correct under- 
standing of the Austrian Nationalist struggles 
unless they are considered from the standpoint 
of economic interest. These struggles did not centre 
merely around the official language, public notices, 
and similar matter, but around the State, and Slav 
influence in the State, which, of course, under Slav 
guidance would have led the Slavs towards economic 
prosperity. 

The Germano-Magyar monarchy had no interest 
in furthering the development of the Slavs; nay, 
on the contrary, it actually strove to compass the 
economic ruin of Croatia. It is interesting to ob- 
serve the effect produced upon the various Slav 
nationalities by a monarchy so constituted. The 
Czechs, without in the least considering the State, 
strongly developed their own national economic 
resources with a view to strengthening their nation- 
al position. The Slovenes followed the lead of the 
Czechs on a more modest scale, yet in a manner not 
to be disregarded, for they were not slow to realize 



29 The following article and MSS. were utilized by the au- 
thor in writing this chapter, viz : Josip Agnetto, "Gospodarski 
polozaj Slovencev," Veda, vol. iv, and two anonymous papers 
in MS. 

236 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 237 

that their Nationalist struggle would remain bar- 
ren of result so long as they failed to bring economic 
resources to bear upon the issue. And they pro- 
ceeded to create their own national economic system 
after the Czech pattern. 

Economically speaking, the Slovenes are to this 
day a nation of peasants. Seventy-five per cent, of 
the population belong to the peasant class. To this 
day agricultural districts form the greater part of 
the Slovene lands, and it is a significant fact that 
from 91.6 to 99.9 per cent, of the peasant properties 
are small-holdings or minor properties up to 50 
hectares. The Slovenes are not a nation of great 
landlords; the land is fairly equally and justly di- 
vided, and under improved economic conditions this 
will prove a basis for a high standard of average 
prosperity. The largest estates are to be found in 
Carinthia, and the smallest in Istria, where their 
smallness tends to render farming unprofitable. The 
average Slovene peasant property is of such size that 
the owner and his family are sufficient to work it. 
The Carinthian and Styrian farmers are the wealth- 
iest, yet ground rent is highest in the Littoral. 

Hops are most profitably cultivated in the Slo- 
vene part of Styria. No less than 3,559 estates grow 
hops, and a very considerable proportion of the 
Austrian hop produce is of Slovene origin. 

Cattle farming is especially developed in the 
Slovene Alpine districts, where this branch of farm- 
ing is capable of great further development. Styr- 



238 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

ian cattle farming is far ahead of the cattle farming 
in other Austrian provinces. Cattle farming is least 
developed in the Littoral, where the farming, except 
in the hill-country, bears an entirely local character. 

Owing to the favorable climatic conditions of the 
Littoral, farming presents many peculiar features 
there. The culture is the most intensive in all 
Austria. Sub-tropical fruits, vineyards, horticul- 
ture — these are the resources of the Istrian farm- 
ing population. 

If Gorica and Gradiska were to be annexed by 
Italy, both would be financially ruined. Neither 
county possesses any local industry worthy of notice, 
and 80 per cent, of the population is engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. Wine and fruits are the only 
exports. In 1913 these two counties produced a mil- 
lion hectolitres of wine, and almost one-half of the 
total was exported. The cost of the production of 
wine is twice as high in the Littoral as in Lower 
Italy. If these districts were to come under Italian 
rule, the local wine industry would speedily be 
crushed by Italian competition, and viticulture in 
Gorica and Gradiska would consequently have to 
cease. But this would entail the closing of one of 
the most important sources of wealth to the inhabit- 
ants, and the whole rural population of the two 
counties would be fatally impoverished. Economic 
ruin would be all the more certain as the local fruit- 
growers would be equally handicapped in competing 
with the Italian fruit-growers. 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 239 

But the abandonment of wine and fruit growing 
for some other form of industry would be attended 
by exceptional difficulty in the Littoral; because 
there are parts of the country, such as, for instance, 
the Brda, the Vipava Valley, the Kras, and parts of 
Istria, where the soil is quite unsuited to any form 
of cultivation but wine and fruit growing, where 
cattle farming could never be made to yield even a 
living, and corn can only be grown at a loss. 

So far the use of machinery in agriculture is not 
at all widespread in the Slovene lands, and, indeed, 
the prevalence of small-holdings in Gorica and Istria 
is not favourable to its introduction. The intro- 
duction of agricultural machinery in Upper Carni- 
ola, Styria, and Carinthia would undoubtedly in- 
crease the productivity of the soil in these districts. 

Trade and industry are yet in their infancy in the 
Slovene lands, although the beginnings of their de- 
velopment date back as far as the seventies. In 
those days were founded the Carniolian Industrial 
Company, the Leykam-Josephsthal Joint Stock Com- 
pany (1870), the coal-mines of Trbovlje (1872), 
and the Pliberk Mining Company (1870). But all 
these great concerns are financed almost exclusively 
with German capital. This influx of German capital 
constituted an extremely grave danger to the Slo- 
venes, and it is of the greatest importance that Eng- 
lish and French money markets should begin to take 
an interest in industrial enterprise in Slovene terri- 
tory. A strong argument in favor of these asser- 



240 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

tions is the fact that of the total capital of 119,000,- 
000 kr. which is invested in industrial concerns in 
the Slovene lands and Dalmatia, only a negligible 
fraction is of Slovene or Croat origin. There are 
165 joint-stock companies in the Slovene lands, with 
a total share capital of 191,000,000 crowns. In 
1903 there were 1,506 industrial concerns in the Slo- 
vene lands, and in 1911 this number had already in- 
creased to 1,924. This is surely in itself sufficient 
proof that the initial stages of industrial develop- 
ment have been successfully passed in the Slovene 
lands. 

It would also be a mistake to assume that the in- 
dustrial possibilities of the Slovene lands — with the 
exception of the Littoral — are incapable of consid- 
erable further development. These countries are 
rich in coal deposits, and exceptionally rich in other 
mineral deposits and mines. One of the greatest 
mercury mines in the world is the Idrija mine in 
Carniola. 

Unfortunately, wholesale manufacture is mostly 
in foreign hands; the small industry, on the other 
hand, is exclusively Slovene. The industrial statis- 
tics of Carniola show that 88.85 per cent, of the in- 
dustrial concerns in the province do not employ 
more than five workmen. Concerns of medium size 
amount to one-third of the whole number, and the 
percentage of wholesale manufactures is only 2.15. 

Thus the Slovenes possess a typical class of small 
industrial owners and workers comparable to the 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 241 

owners of small-holdings among the peasant class. 
The small manufacturer in Carniola usually employs 
motors driven by water power, the total number of 
which amounts to almost one-third of the number of 
motors of this type employed by the small manu- 
facturers in Bohemia. 

The Slovene lands possess an inexhaustible reser- 
voir of water-power which can be tapped for indus- 
trial purposes. This, the water-power of an Alpine 
country, is in itself a guarantee of great industrial 
possibilities. 

In some ways the lack of industrial enterprise on 
a large scale has led to evil consequences. By the 
agrarian crisis the agricultural class was compelled 
to seek industrial employment, and as the local de- 
mand for industrial labour was not sufficiently great, 
emigration offered the only solution. The Slovene 
peasant farmer either becomes an industrial labourer 
in the mines of Upper Styria or is compelled to seek 
employment beyond the ocean. Whole districts have 
thus become depopulated by emigration. The Vi- 
enna Parliament showed itself incapable of directing 
the stream of emigration into the right channels and 
thus warding off the great social loss entailed by it. 

At the present day, 75.4 out of every 100 Slovenes 
are landowners, 13.4 belong to the industrial class, 
7.7 are in Government employ, and only 3.5 are in 
trade. Slovene commerce is unfortunately still very 
undeveloped, although — especially in Trieste — Slo- 
vene commercial enterprise has made great progress. 



242 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

That Slovene commerce is not more developed is 
largely the fault of the Government, which declined 
to grant the Slovenes a commercial college until they 
perforce created their own system of commercial 
schools in Trieste. 

The Slovene has great natural aptitude and talent 
for business, and most certainly the Slovenes are 
capable of developing a capable, reliable, and efficient 
commercial class. With one of the world's harbours, 
such as Trieste, in their hands, the Slovene would 
speedily develop his commercial abilities to the full. 

The commercial rise of Trieste has been truly 
phenomenal during recent years. The import and 
export of the harbour of Trieste amounted to 7.17 
million quintals in 1860, to 30 million quintals in 
1905, and in 1909 it even rose to 50.5 million quin- 
tals. The development of Trieste has made, espe- 
cially, great strides since the new Alpine railway 
was completed. The town also possesses several 
great industries connected with the working-up of 
the imported raw materials, such as rice, paraffin, 
iron, and oil; and Triestine shipbuilding, both of 
men-of-war and trading vessels, affords employ- 
ment to thousands of workmen. 

Fiume could not easily become a dangerous rival 
of Trieste. It is true that the harbour of Fiume 
possesses certain not inconsiderable advantages, but 
in comparison with that of Trieste it is far too small 
to compete successfully with it, and the enlarge- 
ment of the harbour of Fiume would cost many mil- 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 243 

lions. Even if this expense were incurred it would 
still be far from certain that the whole overseas trade 
of the Jugoslav lands could be directed through 
Fiume. Moreover, the next generation of Jugo- 
slavs in Fiume will still lack the necessary stock of 
experienced business men with commercial relations 
with foreign places. Neither could the local bank- 
ing system be developed sufficiently to support the 
financial business of a great trading centre. Ex- 
perienced officials and skilled qualified labour would 
likewise be lacking. In short, the idea that Fiume 
could be made the rival of Trieste must be supposed 
as being fraught with many difficulties. 

Should Italy's political influence rule the Adriatic, 
Italy would easily succeed in controlling the Jugo- 
slav markets with the products of her own indus- 
tries; and owing to the advantageous conditions of 
freightage the products of Italian industry would be 
in a position to exclude British competition alto- 
gether. Italian industry is making unprecedented 
headway, especially in the provinces which will ad- 
join the Jugoslav lands in the future, and with its 
many ramifications might easily gain complete pos- 
session of the whole Jugoslav market. If Trieste 
is given to Italy and Italy rules the Adriatic, the in- 
dispensable preliminary conditions for the creation 
of Jugoslav national industry will be discounted 
from the very outset, and Jugoslav trade and indus- 
try placed absolutely at the mercy of Italy. 

Even so Italy has already established herself so 



244 A BULWAEK AGAINST GERMANY 

firmly in the harbours of the eastern Adriatic that 
not many opportunities are left for the British and 
French mercantile fleets. In 1912 the total tonnage 
of the shipping that entered the harbour of Trieste 
amounted to 4.6 million tons, and the total tonnage 
that left the harbour to 4.7 million tons. Of these, 
4,336,000 tons sailed under the Austrian flag, 1,795,- 
000 under the Italian, and only 490,000 under the 
British flag. If Trieste were handed over to Italy, 
these proportions would doubtless be greatly modi- 
fied in Italy's favour. If, however, the eastern Adri- 
atic is given to the Jugoslavs, the share taken to-day 
by the French, and especially the British mercantile 
fleets in the trade of Trieste will be greatly increased 
at the expense of those of other nations. 

It is difficult to understand the Slovene national 
struggle and Slovene economic development with- 
out a due appreciation of the Slovene co-operative 
system, which owes its existence to Michael Vosnjak. 
Michael Vosnjak, Slovene leader and political 
economist, began to organize Slovene capital 
in mutual loan societies. So long as Slo- 
vene capital was deposited in German and 
Italian loan societies and banks it was easy to main- 
tain that only the Germans and Italians had any 
capital at their disposal. Under the co-operative 
system the Slovene peasants and artisans were en- 
abled to obtain credit on easy terms, and thus ren- 
dered independent of German and Italian capital and 
of the system of oppressive denationalization. The 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 245 

cooperative organization of Slovene capital became 
a powerful weapon in the national struggle against 
both Germans and Italians. In almost all the larger 
towns on the linguistic frontier Slovene financial 
concerns founded "hostels for the people," which 
soon became the centres of the various Nationalist 
organizations. They also assisted Nationalist unions 
and schools, and founded bursaries for colleges and 
secondary schools. It is almost impossible to im- 
agine the Slovene Nationalist struggle without the 
part played in it by the Slovene co-operative so- 
cieties. In 1883 Vosnjak inaugurated a union of the 
Slovene loan societies. This was the third union of 
the kind to be formed in Austria, and for a long 
time the only one of its kind in Southern Austria. 
Vosnjak's institution became the pattern for similar 
foundations in all the Austrian Jugoslav lands, and 
both Slovene and Croatian capital is represented 
in it. 

In 1910 there were 1,207 co-operative societies in 
the Slovene lands, 952 of which were purely Slovene. 
The total capital deposited with these co-operative 
societies amounted to 365,000,000 kr., and their re- 
serve funds to 137,000,000 kr. About 750,000,000 
kr. are invested in Slovene joint-stock companies and 
limited liability companies or deposited with mutual 
loan societies. Throughout the Slovene lands the 
average sum of invested capital per inhabitant 
amounts to 350 kr., which is only slightly below the 
Austrian minimum. In 1905 the deposits with the 



246 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

loan societies alone amounted to 3.14 kr. in Carniola, 
and in Carinthia to 222 kr., against an average of 
233 in Bohemia. The increase from 1902 to 1905 
amounted to 6.7 per cent, in Styria, to 11.3 per cent, 
in Carinthia, to 4.8 per cent, in Carniola, and only to 
10.3 per cent, in Bohemia. This is proof conclusive 
that Slovene prosperity is steadily increasing. 

The rise of the co-operative system was followed 
by a promising development of the Slovene bank 
system. In the Ljubljanska Kreditna Banka and the 
Jadranska Banka the Slovenes possess two impor- 
tant banking concerns. Within a few years the 
Ljubljanska Kreditna Banka increased its capital 
from 1,000,000 kr. to 8,000,000 kr. The deposits 
amount to 30,000,000-40,000,000 kr., and the annual 
turnover was something like 3,000,000 kr. The 
Jadranska Banka in Trieste is a comparatively recent 
institution, but it already occupies an important and 
respected position in the Triestine exchange. Many 
German and Italian firms have been financed by the 
Jadranska Banka. 

Before the foundation of the Jadranska Banka 
there was only one local bank in Trieste, the Italian 
Banca Commerciale Triestina. All other banks 
were merely branches of Viennese houses. In conse- 
quence of its slow business methods the Banca Com- 
cerciale scarcely succeeded in increasing its invested 
capital to 8,000,000 kr. within the course of half a 
century, and in the end found itself obliged to amal- 
gamate with the Wiener Bankverein in such a way 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 247 

that the whole management passed into the hands of 
the Viennese concern. Thus it may truthfully be 
said that Trieste possesses but one independent local 
bank, which is the Jadranska Banka. In conse- 
quence of the rapid prosperity of the Jadranska 
Banka, two great Czech banks, the Zivnostenska 
Banka in Prague and the Ustredni Banka, decided 
to found branch establishments in Trieste, with the 
result that the Slav banks have become a strong fac- 
tor on the Triestine Exchange, and that the German 
economic Drang towards the Adriatic found a dan- 
gerous and successful rival in Slav capital. 

The beauty of the Slovene Alps, of the seacoast, 
the wealth of scenic beauty to be found in the Slo- 
vene lands is such that with but little effort the 
tourist traffic could be developed into a considerable 
source of income for the country. As soon as the 
capital for the required investments is available, and 
the tourist can be assured of the necessary comforts, 
the Slovene lands are certain to become an important 
centre of the European tourist traffic. Nature her- 
self has provided the preliminary conditions, and 
the natives, who are industrious and exceptionally 
well fitted for the working of hotels, etc., will take 
readily to this new avocation. In the Alpine coun- 
tries several tourists' hostels have already been 
founded which experience no difficulty in success- 
fully competing with foreign inns. The Slovene 
lands may yet become a favourite tourist resort ; the 
beauty of the landscape certainly warrants such a 
forecast. 



248 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

A nation cannot fully and freely develop its native 
economic resources unless it is politically and finan- 
cially independent. Handicapped by their unremit- 
tent struggle for bare national existence, the Slo- 
venes have not been able to progress as rapidly as 
their own native ability and the geographical posi- 
tion of their country warrant. But if they were 
united with the other Jugoslavs, the Slovenes would 
soon prove that they possess the necessary material 
for developing into a powerful economic factor. 

The geographical position of the Slovene lands is 
unique; they form an unrivalled link between the 
Teutonic north and the Italian and Jugoslav south. 
Great political and economic interests are bound up 
with the ownership of these lands. Capital of the 
allied nations has not even begun the exploitation of 
these territories, which are still, comparatively 
speaking, virgin soil as regards industrial develop- 
ment. And yet this would be an enterprise which 
could only benefit their general economic evolution. 
Moreover, important political considerations come 
into play here, which weigh heavily in the balance. 

The territory between the Drave and the Adri- 
atic is a dyke holding back the tide of Germanism. 
It is of vital interest to the allied nations that this 
dyke should be proof agains attack, and that the 
German spring tide should not be strong enough to 
break it down and penetrate into the Balkans, and 
turn the latter into a province conquered by German 
capital, and part of a German Empire extending as 



SLOVENE ECONOMICS 249 

far as Bagdad. It would inflict a most severe set- 
back on Germany's economic schemes of conquest 
if the northern Adriatic territories were drawn into 
the economic sphere of the allied nations. If Eng- 
land and France help in ousting Germany politically 
and economically from the Adriatic, they will have 
struck a great blow at German schemes of world- 
domination. There are few spots in Europe where 
this could be done with equal effect. 

In all this we must not forget that the small nation 
of Slovenes, exposed to remorseless national, politi- 
cal, and economic pressure, has, for more than one 
thousand years, contrived successfully to withstand 
the German Drang towards Trieste, and to frustrate 
the completion of the German bridge from the Belt 
to the Adriatic. What may not be expected of a 
nation which achieved thus much in bondage, when 
once it is accorded the possibility of a free develop- 
ment of all its ethical and economic resources ! 

But if the Powers permit the Slovenes to be weak- 
ened, if they are rendered incapable of offering stout 
resistence by having part of their territory added to 
foreign States, they will no longer be able to fulfil 
their mission of forming a protective dyke against 
Germany. An unjust preference of Italy and the 
breaking up of Slovene or any other Jugoslav terri- 
tory would merely create a conflict between the 
Jugoslavs and Italy, a conflict which would impair 
the Jugoslav capacity for holding back Pan-German- 
ism — an inevitable conflict which would provide op- 



250 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

portunities by which Germany could not fail to 
profit and to use the rift in the Jugoslav territory 
to reach Trieste by that road, with the net result 
that in the end neither Italy nor the Jugoslavs would 
be masters of Trieste. Only a strong and united 
Jugoslavia is equal to the task allotted to it, of 
checkmating German influence in the Adriatic. 

A Jugoslavia whose western branch, the Slovenes, 
is to suffer serious injury — the amputation of a right 
arm, so to say, not merely a minor, harmless oper- 
ation, as many people seem to think — would, in its 
weakened condition scarcely be able to hold back the 
might of Germany. The Slovene territory is the 
closing link in the chain which is to enclose the Ger- 
man economic territory. Shorn of any essential 
part of its territory, the western branch of the Jugo- 
slavs would not be in a position to fulfil their his- 
toric mission, and for want of support from within, 
the northwestern part of the great dyke would be 
flooded and destroyed; yet not only the Jugoslavs 
would suffer by this, but also France and England, 
and with them all that part of Europe which is at 
present fighting against German predominance. The 
vital interests of France and England, foremost 
among the States who are conducting the struggle 
against Germany's effort to make herself mistress 
of the world, imperatively demand that the Jugo- 
slavs shall be rendered economically strong to resist 
the German onslaught, the terrific force of which the 
Great War has disclosed to the world. 



XIV 
THE JUGOSLAV IDEA. 

ON THE threshold of the twentieth century 
the old Habsburg Monarchy found itself 
confronted with an ominous problem. Like 
a terrible spectre the Jugoslav Question arose be- 
fore the eyes of the Viennese potentates. No one had 
the courage boldly to grasp the nettle and to find a 
sound solution of the problem. And yet the very 
existence of the Monarchy was at stake. As Vienna 
was not capable of grappling with a full solution, 
attempts were made to put down the movement by 
petty methods. Secret police officials, informers, 
and the State prosecutor usurped the office of the 
statesmen. The Zagreb (Agram) High Treason 
Trial, and the Friedjung Case were signs and tokens 
in the heavens, premonitions of the coming storm. 

So long as Jugoslav national feeling was weak, 
the effects of the Dualism were not yet aggressively 
obvious. During the first decades of its existence, 
it did not yet assume the definite form of a Mag- 
yar hegemony. Croatia was still treated with com- 
parative clemency. But in proportion as the politi- 
cal centre of gravity in the Monarchy was shifted 
to Budapest, the tremendous mistake of this consti- 
tutional system became increasingly apparent. Dr- 
Lueger, Mayor of Vienna, was the greatest enemy 

251 



252 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

of the Magyar element. Gifted with true political 
insight, he realized that the Magyars were tamper- 
ing with the stability of the State, and like a true 
parasite nation, would eventually bring the Mon- 
archy to rack and ruin. 

As Germany became a world-Power, she showed 
herself increasingly desirous of an alliance with the 
Magyars. Even Bismarck had already sought to 
employ the Magyars for his own ends. German and 
Magyar Junkerdom, the German and Magyar policy 
of oppression, were splendidly suited to one another; 
both politically and socially these two mentalities 
were admirably calculated to supplement each other. 
The policy of force in Berlin and the policy of force 
in Budepest — each suited the other. 

Already Berlin and Budapest believed that they 
had almost achieved their object of corrupting and 
crushing the Jugoslavs. Croatia's autonomy was 
treated as a dangerous fiction, which was no longer 
in accordance with practical politics. The Slovenes 
were wholly taken up with absurd party conflicts, 
and had temporarily forgotten the great Jugoslav 
aims. In Belgrade, Magyarism turned the Serbian 
House of Obrenovic into a pliant agency. Serbia 
was corrupted, and a foreign policy which was both 
pro-German and pro-Magyar reduced the country 
to a state of almost complete dependence upon Buda- 
pest. 

But with the accession of the Karageorgevici, all 
the calculations of the Magyars were doomed to 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 253 

miscarry, for the emancipation of the Serbian land 
and people began in earnest, and Serbia developed 
with fresh and youthful vigor. The Croats began 
successfully to resist the Magyar policy of brute 
force and violence. 

In consequence of the annexation of Bosnia- 
Herzegovina several million more Jugoslavs came 
into closer political touch with the Austrian Slavs, 
and the solution of the Jugoslav problem within 
the Monarchy became an immediate necessity. But 
this would have meant the sacrifice of the Dualism. 

The Magyars knew very well that within a few 
years the Monarchy would have to concede a new 
political status to the Jugoslavs ; when Germany as- 
sumed her bellicose attitude, the Magyars were con- 
vinced that a successful war was the only means of 
crushing the Jugoslavs. And here lies the reason 
why Germany's aggressive war-policy found such an 
enthusiastic echo in Hungary, which is equally guilty 
with Germany of the horrors of the World- War. 

The true and traditional name of both Serbs and 
Croats was not originally that of the politically dif- 
ferentiated Serbian and Croatian "State-nation," 
but that of a people who called themselves the 
Slovinci, without regard to political allegiance. In 
past centuries this unity became somewhat obscured, 
yet it reasserted itself with full vigor in the nine- 
teenth century. The Illyrist movement was only a 
first, unsuccessful attempt to give this unity a new 
form. But this attempt was succeeded by two others 



254 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

which proved of the greatest importance for the 
party-formation among the Jugoslavs. 

In 1849 Vuk Karadjic published his treatise 
"Srbi svi i svuda" ("Serbs all and everywhere") in 
the Kovcedjic, a journal appearing in Vienna. In 
this treatise he advocated the view that all Jugoslavs 
are Serbs, and speak the Serbian tongue. As a mat- 
ter of fact, Vuk Karadjic merely voiced the Idea of 
Unity in his article, but in a crudely extremist form, 
since, logically speaking, it denied the existence of 
the Croats. It is distinctly one of history's ironies 
that this very idea of Unity gave rise to some of the 
sharpest conflicts between Croats and Serbs. 

On the Croatian side it was Ante Starcevic who 
propounded a formula, which likewise expressed the 
idea of unity, but involved the negation of the Serbs. 
The whole train of though of both these men may 
be summed up in the following sentence. Vuk Kar- 
adjic was convinced that all Jugoslavs were Serbi- 
ans, and Ante Starcevic was convinced that all were 
simply Croatians. But it cannot be too strongly 
insisted upon that both men must be considered pio- 
neers of the movement in favour of Unity. 

Still, a considerable period had to elapse ere the 
time was ripe ; and the passionate dissensions could 
not fail greatly to injure the Jugoslav cause. But it 
was of the utmost consequence that the true concep- 
tion of the idea of Unity should win recognition at 
the very moment when the Croato-Hungarian Union 
was beginning to lose its power of attraction. The 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 255 

unity of Serbs and Croats and Slovenes became the 
fundamental idea, the most characteristic feature of 
the modern spirit of Croatia, the vital nerve of her 
national life of to-day. 

To every man understanding the conditions of 
the Slav south it was clear that a consolidation of the 
political life of the Balkan Slavs would profoundly 
affect the relations of the Jugslavs to the Monarchy. 
The Balkan War was the great event which trans- 
formed a petty provincialism into proud political 
self-consciousness. In order to grasp the full import 
of these events we would point out that no national- 
political union was ever compassed with such im- 
petuous vigor as that of the Balkan peoples. The 
Italians unified their State more or less because of 
military reverses and with foreign help. In Ger- 
many the constitution of the Union was the fruit 
of long and slow development. With the Balkan 
peoples this spontaneous outburst of energy was ut- 
terly unexpected. 

It is important to point out the effect exercised 
by the formation of the two great Nationalist poli- 
ties of the nineteenth century upon the Austrian 
Italians and Germans. Before the political unifica- 
tion of Italy there was no Italian Nationalism in 
Austria. The' beginnings of an Italian movement 
with strictly Nationalist aims do not go back be- 
yond the sixties. A far more disastrous effect, how- 
ever, was exercised upon the fate of Austria by the 
unification of Germany. It is certainly in keeping 



256 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

with subsequent facts that Hohenwart and Schaffle 
would have carried through a Federalist Constitu- 
tion if France had not so ignominously broken down 
in 1870. 

Whilst the problem of Serbo-Croat unity occu- 
pied the chief place of interest from the very first, 
Slovene party politics stood aside for a long time. 
They were the indispensable third party in the al- 
liance. In the past century the ideal of Pan-Slavism 
was the very factor which belittled the importance 
of Jugoslav unity. This great all-Slav ideal, con- 
ceived on lines of gigantic and far-reaching scope, 
for a long time forced the more practical, realizable 
Jugoslav idea into the background. Here in the 
south Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs dwelt side by 
side; all were threatened by one common foe, all 
were at the same stage of social development. Com- 
pared to this tiny realty, Panslavism was a beautiful 
dream; but the great differentiation between such 
Slav nations as already possessed ancient intellectual 
and political traditions rendered the realization of an 
immense all-Slav macrocosm difficult. When in 
1908, at the All-Slav Congress in Prague, Russians 
and Poles joined hands in the spirit or reconciliation, 
a very significant thing occurred. The Slovene, 
Croat, and Serb members of the Congress joined 
together in a Jugoslav group, so that a united Jugo- 
slav group appeared beside the Russian, Polish, 
Czech, and Bulgarian groups. 

Although true brotherly cordiality has always ex- 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 257 

isted between Slovenes and Croats, the Dualism pro- 
vided an insurmountable barrier between them, di- 
viding the Slovenes from the Croats. Up to the be- 
ginning of the present century their mutual relations 
were mainly formal — many words and few deeds. 
On the Slovene side it was that admirable scientific 
and literary institution, the "Matica Slovenska," 
which established the much-needed mutual inter- 
course and rekindled the interest in the necessary 
preparation for future intellectual unity. The Slo- 
vene scientific journal Veda fulfils the highly im- 
portant task of drawing the intellectual circles of the 
Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs closer together. It be- 
came the rule for all professional and trade journals 
to appear simultaneously both in Slovene and Cro- 
atian. 

All this progress in the mutual relations between 
Slovenes and Croats was due to the efforts of the 
younger generation, which gradually began to domi- 
nate public life. The young men of this Jugoslav 
generation, the men who were responsible for the 
publication of the Nase Doha in Prague — these be- 
gan to exercise an ever-increasing influence in pub- 
lic affairs. In Croatia the Serbo-Croat Coalition, a 
result of the ideas of the new generation, scored a 
political triumph. The old Magyarophil Party was 
crushed, and on the ruins of the so-called Unionist 
Party the idea of Serbo-Croatian unity developed 
with ever-increasing vitality. Among the Slovenes 
the dead point was passed a little later, and with 



258 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

them it was not so much in the life of party politics 
as in the world of science and journalism that the 
new Jugoslav idea made vigorous headway. In 
this revival of the Jugoslav idea among the Slovenes 
the publicist activity of the Veda proved a decisive 
factor. 

Nor must the importance of several other new 
links between the Slovene lands and Zagreb 
(Agram) be under-estimated. Slovene scientific 
men were called to the University in Zagreb, and 
this introduced a totally new element into the mutual 
relations between Croats and Slovenes. In Zagreb, 
Slovene professors lectured to Bosnians, Dalmatians, 
and Istrians. The idea of Jugoslav unity showed 
ever clearer upon the horizon, and the idea of Jugo- 
slav solidarity found its way to the heart of the 
Slovene intellectual classes, irresistibly, like one of 
Nature's forces. 

When in 1913 a Slovene University lecturer in 
Prague attempted to criticise the new Jugoslav 
movement he met with an energetic and unmistak- 
able refusal on the part of the Slovene academic 
world. Everybody realized that the days of Slovene 
particularism were numbered, and that Slovene 
national life imperatively needed the strong support 
of its Jugoslav brothers. What were one and a 
half million Slovenes — politically and economically 
weak — in the gigantic struggle which presently broke 
out between Germanism and Slavism? Only a 
united Jugoslav element could hope to count at all 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 259 

in this conflict. The World- War and the terrible 
power of Pan-Germanism, which would undoubt- 
edly have utterly crushed the Slovenes, have proved 
to what a degree the new Jugoslav idea had become 
an inevitable necessity, one might almost say a dic- 
tate of Nature. 

The fundamental principle of this idea, as it has 
taken root among the Slovenes, is admirably defined 
in a resolution passed by the younger Slovene in- 
tellectuals in 1913, and which runs as follows: 

"As it is a fact that we, Slovenes, Croats, and 
Serbs, constitute a compact linguistic and ethnical 
group, with similar economic conditions, and so in- 
dissolubly linked by common fate on a common ter- 
ritory that not one of the three can aspire to a sepa- 
rate future, and in consideration of the fact that 
among the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs the Jugo- 
slav national thought is even to-day strongly devel- 
oped, we have extended our national sentiments be- 
yond our frontier to the Croats and Serbs, just as 
among them also the idea of national reciprocity 
with the Slovenes is spread abroad. By this we all 
become members of one united Jugoslav nation. 
This is the spirit by which all Jugoslavs must be ani- 
mated. As regards the Slovenes, we would lay 
special stress upon the fact that the evolution of their 
sense of national responsibility towards the creation 
of the broad foundations of Jugoslavdom, is already 
to-day greatly strengthening their resistence against 
denationalization and foreign Imperialism." 



260 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

But not only the intellectuals, whose influence was 
already making itself felt in public life, but also the 
academic youth in the universities and secondary 
schools was energetically drawn to the Jugoslav 
ideal. Numerous periodicals appeared, edited by 
university students, and devoted to the cause of 
Jugoslav propaganda. In many an impassioned 
article the folly of Slovene party politics was held 
up to obliquy, the pettiness of local interests ridi- 
culed, the great original strength of the Jugoslav 
idea eulogized. A new spirit manifested itself in the 
Slovene intellectual world. It seemed as though it 
were inspired by new energy and a new optimism. 
The apathetic indolence, the heavy pessimism of the 
last twenty years suddenly seemed to have yielded 
to a sturdy national self -consciousness. The spirit 
of decadence which had invaded Slovene literature 
was almost swept away by a strong wave of a clean 
new nationalism. But not only the world of intel- 
lect, the masses also began to adopt the idea of a 
Jugoslav unity with growing energy and devotion. 
Upon the masses the victories of the Balkan Alliance 
during the first Balkan War created a most profound 
impression. The call of the blood and the claim of 
the race were overpowering. Now men realized that 
both intellectuals and common people were being 
welded together by the irresistible force of a living 
idea. 

The minority of the Jugoslavs live outside the 
Monarchy. It is impossible that a political frontier 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 261 

should completely divide sons of one and the same 
race. The Germans of Austria and Germany main- 
tain a close relationship, and as' regards artistic and 
intellectual life, the political frontier is non-existent. 
Is there any such frontier between the French can- 
tons in Switzerland and France ? And yet none the 
less French and Swiss are loyal citizens of Switzer- 
land. 

The Monarchy ought to have permitted the Jugo- 
slavs on both sides of her frontier to enjoy similar 
intellectual reciprocity. Intellectual reciprocity be- 
tween peoples inhabiting different States is the most 
ordinary thing in the world. But the Austrian Ger- 
mans and Magyars were much too fanatical and ob- 
stinate to realize this, and the most absurd police 
regulations frustrated every chance of continuous 
intellectual intercourse between the Jugoslavs of the 
Monarchy and Serbia. The most innocuous Bel- 
grade journals were stopped in Semlin, and it was 
almost considered tantamount to high treason to 
profess the belief in Jugoslav cultural unity. 

When Austria mobilized in 1914, all Slovenes who 
were known to be adherents to the Jugoslav idea 
were arrested and imprisoned, although no acts of 
high treason could be proved against them. It was 
proof enough for the Austrian myrmidons if a man 
owned to being a Jugoslav. The victims belonged 
to the social elite of the Slovenes, and were repre- 
sentative of every class in society, from University 



262 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

professors to board-school teachers, from mill- 
owners to peasants. 

The mighty manifestation of Jugoslav national 
sentiment during recent years preceding the out- 
break o fthe World-War was a curious and signifi- 
cant sign of the times. It was a premonition of the 
titanic struggle which was in preparation and was 
soon to flood Europe with a sea of blood. The Jugo- 
slavs were compelled to admit: "Tua res agitur!" 
The World-War must entail the solution of the 
Jugoslav Question, seeing that it was largely con- 
ditioned by the antagonism between Germans and 
Jugoslavs. 

There is still one question open. The days of 
Slovene particularism are numbered. But what is 
to become of Slovene literature and the Slovene lan- 
guage? And will the latter have to yield to the 
Serbo-Croat tongue? Compulsion must not decide 
these questions. Practical consideration will prove 
so strong that without compulsion, simply, and in 
the natural course of events, they will bring about 
complete fusion in the future, coupled with due pro- 
tection of all that is individual . 



XV 

THE STRUGGLE FOR INTELLECTUAL 

LIFE 

AFTER the loss of their political independence 
and down to the end of the Middle Ages, the 
Slovenes could not continue the development 
of their literature, the beginnings of which are 
shown in the records of the eleventh century. Two 
great movements of world-wide importance have 
also been decisive for the life of Slovene literature, 
the Reformation and the French Revolution. The 
three great Jugoslav reformers, Trubar, Vergerius, 
and Flaccius Illyricus, were all three natives of the 
Sloveno-Croatian lands. Trubar is not the strong- 
est personality among these three men — he was not 
in such close connection with the leaders of the 
Reformation as Vergerius; but Trubar is the cre- 
ator of the Slovene literary language. The Slovene 
translation of the Bible is an event of unique mo- 
ment for the national life of the Slovenes. The first 
Slovene books were printed in 1550, and that same 
year saw the establishment of the first printing press 
in Ljubljana. The first Slovene grammar was pub- 
lished in 1584 by Adam Bohoric, and the first Slo- 
vene dictionary was published in 1592. 

The Reformation was an intellectual renascence 
for the Slovenes. The foundations of a new nation- 
al life were prepared by the religious movement 

263 



264 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

which had Nationalist consequences. But this resur- 
rection was soon stifled by the will of the House of 
Habsburg. 

During the years in which the French Revolution 
was preparing there was a very strong and active 
literary movement in the Slovene lands. A circle of 
literary men was gathered together in the house of 
Zois, one of the most learned mineralogists of his 
day, who was in communication with many French 
contemporary scientific men. The most important 
man in this circle was the liberal-minded priest Vod- 
nik, who, under the French domination, organized 
the public instruction in the Illyrian provinces. Vod- 
nik's poem, "Illyria Resurrected," is the song of the 
Slovene resurrection and at the same time a glorifi- 
cation of the French Empire. The first Slovene 
journalist was Vodnik, who edited the journal 
Ljubljanske N ovine during the years 1797-1800. In 
1843 Bleiweis began the publication of the Kmetiske 
in Rokodelske novice. 

Slovene intellectual life, like Slovene political life, 
knows no slow evolution. There are long periods 
of stagnation and abrupt changes to intense activity. 
The poetic genius of Presern had no precursor. All 
of a sudden Slovene literature had found an incom- 
parable master who was on a level with the intellec- 
tual life of his age, and who gave to his nation a 
poetry which may claim equality with the master- 
pieces of European literature. 

The Slovenes have given the world a whole line 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 265 

of scientific men, more than one would expect from 
a nationality of one million and a half. The glory 
of the Slovenes is Slav philology. Kopitar and Mik- 
losic, who was called by the Germans the greatest 
grammarian of the century, are masters in this 
branch of philology. But the Slovenes excel also in 
mathematics. Vega, who lived towards the end 
of the eighteenth century, was one of the best known 
mathematicians of his day. 

The evolution of the Slovene press in our own day 
is proof of a strong intellectual movement. In 1912 
there were 122 Slovene papers. (All the Poles to- 
gether have only 600 papers.) The circulation of 
the political dailies is from 10,000 to 30,000 copies. 
The Domoljub, which is published exclusively for 
the Carniolian peasantry, has a circulation of 51,000; 
the popular journal Slovenski Dom has a circulation 
of 28,000. The agricultural weekly paper has 50,- 
000 subscribers in Carniola alone. Gorica was one 
of the centres of Slovene press activity. Five po- 
litical papers and many literary and scientific re- 
views were published there, among which the Veda 
must be mentioned as one of the most influential 
with regard to Jugoslav political ideas. The literary 
life and productivity of Ljubljana was also well de- 
veloped, and the oldest of the Slovene literary re- 
views were published there. 

According to the official statistics of 1910, 85.34 
per cent, of the Slovene population can read and 
write. Yet in Hungary only 62.02 per cent, can read 



266 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

and write, and in Italy 62.40 per cent. In some Ital- 
ian provinces the number of illiterates amounts to 
85 per cent. In Rome, the capital of Italy, the illit- 
erates number 65 per cent. (Borghese, "L/Italie 
Moderne"). The number of Slovene illiterates is 
23.26 per cent, in Carinthia, 14.75 per cent, in 
Gorica, 12.86 per cent, in Trieste, 12.46 per cent, in 
Carniola, and 11.54 per cent, in Styria. 

One of the saddest results of the Nationalist strug- 
gles in Austria is that the resources of culture have 
been pressed into the service of Nationalist war- 
fare. The educational system has become the most 
important battle-ground of all, and of course the ad- 
vantage lies with the nationality that possesses a 
prosperous middle class, enjoys the favour of the 
Government, and may hope moreover to receive 
financial subsidies from abroad. In all these respects 
the Sloveness are distinctly placed at a disadvantage. 

The various Nationalist school unions have al- 
ready been referred to in the chapter dealing with 
the Nationalist struggle of the Slovenes against both 
Germans and Italians. At present we are dealing 
with a different problem, which is to examine what 
the State is doing for Slovene education, and what 
manner of educational system exists in the Slovene 
lands. ( 

Of all the Slovene lands, Carinthia is the worst off 
for schools. In this province there are only two 
primary schools to provide for the needs of 100,- 
000 Slovenes. 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 267 

The so-called "Utraquistic" schools are an institu- 
tion without any legal status and constituting, in 
fact, a grave infringement of all legislation concern- 
ing primary schools. It is a shame and even a scan- 
dal that in the Slovene lands 56.7 per cent, of the 
Austrian State schools belong to this type. An 
"Utraquistic" school is neither more nor less than a 
school in which during the first term of the first 
school-year the tuition of Slovene children is carried 
on in both German and Slovene, and after that ex- 
clusively in German. This is, of course, a grave in- 
fringement of one of the first principles of pedagogy, 
which is, that tuition should be imparted solely in 
the mother tongue of the pupil. In the "Utraquistic" 
schools the tuition is in the hands of teachers who 
are neither acquainted with the Slovene tongue nor 
true pedagogues, but first and foremost fanatical 
Nationalist Chauvinists. The results of such in- 
struction my readily be imagined. The children 
are forcibly denationalized, but on the other hand, 
they do not acquire a thorough knowledge of Ger- 
man either; so that the "Utraquistic" school system 
entails a very grave danger to the moral qualities of 
the Slovene rising generation, in view of the prob- 
lems of later life. 

And here we must briefly mention that the pri- 
mary school system in Trieste is likewise exceedingly 
detrimental to the Slovene interests. The mere fact 
that not one single primary school is provided for 
the 60,000 Slovene inhabitants of Trieste conclu- 



268 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

sively disproves the Italian allegation that the Gov- 
ernment favours the Slovenes. In Trieste, in Pola, 
and in Opatija ( Abbazia) the Government maintains 
German primary schools for a small, non-indigenous 
colony of German immigrants; but the Slovenes, 
who are the real natives, are left unprovided for. 

As the primary school system form a very impor- 
tant department of the provincial administration, in 
which the Italians — owing to an undemocratic and 
reactionary electoral system — still possess a major- 
ity, the backward condition of the school system con- 
stitutes a grave reproach to the ruling party. In 
Istria there are no less than 14,000 Jugoslav chil- 
dren of school age who are without any school in- 
struction whatsoever, because there are not enough 
primary schools in the country. It certainly cannot 
be said of the Italians in Istria that they display great 
interest in the progress of culture. 

I need hardly explain that American conditions 
cannot by any means be compared with Austrian con- 
ditions. America possesses an educational system 
which is suitable for a wealthy country. In a poor 
country like Austria all education must be public 
and not a matter of private enterprise, as otherwise 
education would speedily become the privilege of a 
small stratum of the upper middle classes, while the 
great majority of the people would be debarred from 
its benefits and thus indirectly deprived of all pos- 
sibility of improving their position in life. Such 
nationalities as have no middle class, or among 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 269 

whom the middle class is a thing of recent growth 
and not yet fully established, would, under a system 
of private education, be cut off from all possibility of 
making their voice herad in public life. 

As regards secondary schools in the Slovene lands, 
the State is well aware that a nationality without 
secondary schools cannot progress. With truly ad- 
mirable energy the State renders assistance to Ger- 
man secondary schools in the Slovene lands, while 
in every way endeavoring to prevent the institution 
of Slovene secondary schools. 

The way in which the Government has proceeded 
in the Littoral affords perhaps the most character- 
istic example of its methods. In the Littoral the 
Government maintains five complete secondary 
schools for 27,000 Germans, viz : 4,000 in Gorica- 
Gradiska, 14,000 in Trieste, and 12,000 in Istria, 
and not even one complete secondary school with 
Slav tuition for a population of 250,000 Slovenes. 
The solicitous care of the Government for the Ger- 
mans of Gorica-Gradiska is almost amusing. The 
4,000 Germans of Gorica possess two secondary 
schools. In 1909 only thirty-five of the 585 pupils 
attending the Gymnasium were Germans, and since 
then the number of Germans has materially de- 
creased. Surely these facts prove clearly that the 
German element in the southern provinces is arti- 
ficially fostered and preserved. 

The number of scholars attending secondary 
schools provides a very good criterion for the intel- 



270 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

lectual development of a given nationality in the 
Austrian Empire. Although the State has neglected 
the Slovenes to an inexcusable extent, and Slovene 
schoolboys are compelled to pursue their studies at 
gymnasia where tuition is imparted in an alien 
tongue, yet the number of scholars attending second- 
ary schools is very considerable in the Littoral. Of 
the total number of scholars attending gymnasia 
(secondary classical schools) in the Littoral 1,072 
are Slovenes, 362 Croats, and 3,845 Italians. Of 
the total number attending real schools (secondary 
modern schools), 998 are Slovenes, 319 Croats, and 
3,574 Italians. 

In the purely Slovene province of Carniola the 
State, even to this day, does not maintain even one 
secondary school where the tuition is purely Slovene ; 
in all schools the tuition is partly in German, partly 
in Slovene. In Styria there are twelve secondary 
schools; but there is not one Slovene secondary 
school for the half-million Slovene inhabitants of the 
province, and in only two secondary schools a few 
subjects are taught in Slovene as well as in German. 

Up to the present the Slovenes are very inade- 
quately provided with professional training schools; 
only Ljubljana (Laibach) possesses a technical pro- 
fessional school. The Jugoslavs of the Littoral do 
not possess a single professional training school 
where the tuition is in Slovene or Croatian. The 
technical college in Trieste is Italian, and so are the 
two naval training schools in the Littoral. 

It might be objected that a nationality without a 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 271 

proper system of secondary schools is not entitled to 
a University. But in this case such an argument 
would be pure sophistry. The sole reason why 
the Slovene system of secondary schools is develop- 
ing so very slowly and gradually is the fear of the 
Government lest the German influence should be 
weakened. 

The Slovene language is fully developed, and 
periodicals and books on all subjects in all spheres 
of learning appear in it. The Government refuses 
to provide the Slovenes with a Nationalist school 
system, not because they are not sufficiently ad- 
vanced, but because they would become too danger- 
ous rivals to the German element if they had it. 

During the short but glorious period of French 
rule in the Slovene lands, Napoleon gave the Slo- 
venes a kind of Academy. Subsequently the de- 
mand for a Slovene Academy was particularly em- 
phasized in 1848. In Ljubljana the lectures on civil 
and criminal law were given in Slovene in 1849. In 
the Styrian provincial University of Graz the well- 
known Slovene jurist Kranjec lectured on Civil Law 
in the Slovene tongue. Although the Slovenes con- 
stitute one-third of the population of Styria — and 
surely their language is entitled to some consider- 
ation in the provincial University, just as Italian 
lectures are held in the University of Berne, and 
German lectures in the Universities of Geneva and 
Lausanne — the Slovene lectures at the University of 
Graz were soon suspended for fear that the German 
character of the college should be imperilled. 



272 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

No Austrian Government has had the courage to 
deny the justice of the Slovene claim to a University. 
In Austria there are five Universities for nine mil- 
lion Germans, two for four million Poles, and there 
is one for the six million Czechs. The four million 
Ruthenes, seven hundred and sixty thousand Ital- 
ians, and two million Austrian Jugoslavs possess no 
national Universities of their own. No Austrian 
Minister of Education can deny that the Universities 
and Academies ought to be nationalized, but as yet 
none has taken the task in hand. The Minister of 
Education, Hertel, in especial, expressed great sym- 
pathy with the claims of the Slovenes to a national 
University. It is certainly the height of absurdity 
that the future judge, advocate, and administrative 
official has to pass his examinations in German, al- 
though he will be subsequently called upon to judge 
and plead in the Slovene tongue and to employ it in 
the exercise of his official duties. 

The Austrians could solve the question of a Slo- 
vene University in a moment and without incurring 
even a halfpenny of expense. The Francis Joseph 
University in Zagreb (Agram) is the oldest Jugo- 
slav University. The syllabus includes lectures on 
Austrian law besides those on Croatian law, and 
several members of the staff are Slovenes. Ever 
since the University was founded in the seventies, a 
scheme of reciprocity between it and the Austrian 
Universities has been in contemplation. The Aus- 
trian Croats and Slovenes demand that a student 
should be able to qualify for the Austrian Civil Serv- 



THE JUGOSLAV IDEA 273 

ice by passing his examinations in Zagreb. In Aus- 
tria this demand was opposed chiefly by the German 
Universities, who would lose financially by such an 
arrangement. For if the reciprocity scheme were 
put in force, the German Universities would lose 
their Jugoslav students. But the Zagreb Uni- 
versity has a far more potent antagonist in the 
Hungarian Premier, who would fain keep the Slo- 
vene and Croat academic youth in Zagreb from rea- 
lizing how humiliating and crushing is the effect of 
the present political system upon the Jagoslavs. 

The Slovenes possessed a literature in an idiom 
of their own and the beginnings of independent sci- 
entific activity. Their scientific and literary associ- 
ation — the Slovenska Matica — which was dissolved 
by the Government upon the outbreak of the war, 
has the traditions of a half-century of steady growth 
and successful activity. The most important Jugo- 
slav scrientific Institution in the Monarchy, the 
Jugoslav Academy of Science and Fine Arts in 
Zagreb, is the common heritage of both Slovenes and 
Croats. The Academy was founded by one of the 
greatest champions of the Jugoslav idea, Bishop 
Juraj Strossmayer. 

It would be a mistake, moreover, to assume that 
knowledge and education are restricted to the lead- 
ing classes. Slovene civilization is not exclusive or 
aristocratic, the privilege of a small circle — on the 
contrary, it has always shown a tendency to be a 
true, democratic civilization of the whole people. 



XVI 
THE GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE. 

IT WAS a small and a humble world in which 
until lately the Slovenes lived, moved, and had 
their being. Theirs was not a national life, 
throbbing with glad initiative and the sturdy joy of 
living. A ghastly nightmare weighed upon the lit- 
tle nation. Two powerful nations, unified into 
Great Powers, constantly menaced its very existence 
and strove to crush it with the terrific weight of 
huge numbers and the tremendous resources at their 
disposal. And the little nation refused to yield in 
the conflict, although the odds were so unequal. And 
yet, now that we can more clearly survey the full 
power of the German Colossus, we must own that 
the Slovenes could scarcely have prolonged their 
resistence to Germanism for more than e few years. 
If the World- War had not broken out their fate 
would have been sealed ere long. 

A glance at the map will suffice to show the incal- 
culable importance of the Slovene territories from 
a politico-geographical point of view. This narrow 
wedge, driven in at just that point between German- 
ism and Italy, possesses an importance all its own. 
It may be regarded on the one hand as a bridge be- 
tween North and South, or again as a dividing ele- 
ment, assuring the maintenance of a just balance of 
power. 

274 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 275 

It would be a disastrous mistake if the Allies and 
America failed to recognize the importance of this 
strip of country. Its value is not inferior to that of 
Belgium. A German occupation of the Slovene 
lands would be not one whit less disastrous than the 
annexation of Belgium by Germany. 

The Slovene people dwelling in this angle where 
the German, Italian, and Slav worlds meet are well 
fitted to fulfil the great task of weakening foreign 
Imperialism in the interests of European democracy, 
and — with the help of the whole of Jugoslavdom — 
of keeping it fully within bounds. 

The Great War is the Crusade of German Im- 
perialism. But the Slovenes were not only in danger 
of being absorbed by Germanism. 

It is the duty of Europe to deliver the great 
thoroughfare of the nations which unites North and 
South, East and West, one of the most central coun- 
tries of Europe, a sea which Germany with startling 
effrontery calls its own "lungs," from foreign Im- 
perialism, and to grant the Slovenes the blessing of 
civic freedom. 

The Dualism of Austria-Hungary, with its in- 
ternal chaos, was one of the true causes of the 
World- War; it was a crime against Europe. It is 
an admitted fact that it would greatly serve the in- 
terests of Europe if the fifty million inhabitants of 
the Monarchy were delivered from gross political 
misgovernment, and the Monarchy replaced by 
rationally organized political units. But this work 



276 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

would have to be carried through consistently. The 
territory between the Adria and the Drava is un- 
questionably the key to the scheme of general re- 
form. This strip of land is the most valuable of all, 
for it is here that the German access to the southern 
sea can be cut off. And this land is inhabited by a 
nation whose whole national development is in 
harmony with those ideas which are to guarantee the 
happier future of the nations. It would be a 
wretched piece of patchwork if the Slovenes were 
from heedlessness or ignorance sacrificed to Ger- 
man or Italian Imperialism. 

Democracy has always been the fundamental note 
of Slovene political life. Democracy stood beside 
the cradle of Slovene nationalism and could it have 
been consistently put in public practice, it would 
have strengthened the position of the Slovenes even 
within the Monarchy. It was the one battle-cry of 
Slovenedom. Without an aristocracy, without an 
ancient nobility, without strongly marked class dis- 
tinctions, the Slovenes are a nation of self-made men 
in the best sense of the word. In virtue of their 
whole nature they will fit well and easily into the 
European democracy which will arise after the war. 
The sense of solidarity between the different social 
strata of the nation is very strongly developed among 
the Slovenes. As after the war and with the break- 
down of socialistic phraseology the tendency towards 
solidarity within the scope of the individual nation 
will be stronger than ever before, the Slovenes will 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 277 

then afford a good example of the sense of national 
solidarity of all classes. 

Besides the establishment of democracy and social 
solidarity, another result of the great struggle will 
be a refined Nationalism, freed from Imperialistic 
dross, full of appreciation of the good and great 
things created by other nations. Whatever is good 
and vital in Slovene culture and politics has sprung 
from National sentiment, from their own proper 
Nationalism. Without democracy and Nationalism 
the Slovenes could not exist. America victorious 
will have the duty of championing national eugenics, 
i. e. of favouring those nations whose past history 
has endowed them with a capacity for furthering the 
great ideas of Democracy and a non-imperialistic 
liberal Nationalism. Few nations have been 
schooled for this work by so hard a fate as the 
Slovenes. By granting them the possibility of po- 
litical freedom the Powers will ensure that the blood 
of the Allied armies has not been spilt in vain, and 
that true democracy and the happiness of the small 
National units will spring from the blood-soaked 
soil. 

But the Slovene question must definitely assume 
the aspect of a European question when we contem- 
plate it in conjunction with the Jugoslav ideal. Cut 
off from the rest of the Jugoslavs, the Slovenes are 
without significance; united with them, they are 
one of the most important elements in a Jugoslav 
State. It was sound political insight that prompted 



278 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

the Serbians to proclaim the inevitableness of Slo- 
vene-Serbo-Croat unity. They know that the Slo- 
venes will bring an element into the State which 
will make for political consolidation on a sound 
basis. It might even be said that it would be a mis- 
fortune for the young State if the Slovenes were 
to be excluded from it. 

The Slovenes, like the Serbs and Croats, are with- 
out social traditions, without the terrible ballast of 
class prejudice and social distinctions. The national 
life springs from the peasant class, and is permeated 
by the wholesome breath of the soil. But if the 
social foundations are almost the same in both 
cases, in other respects there are great differences. 
The Slovenes and Serbs are without traditions. 
But during the long period of national dependence, 
during which they were debarred from creating any- 
thing they might call their own, they were exposed 
to foreign political and social influences. The Serbs 
languished under the shameful yoke of Turkish 
mismanagement, and the Slovenes under a foreign 
rule which, in a spirit of patriarchal Absolutism, 
strove to denationalize them, not so much by force 
as by far more inisdious means. The effect of 
Turkish brutality upon the Serbs was to rouse their 
indomitable love of liberty to the highest pitch. 

Through living in constant mutual relations with 
the great cultured nations of the West, not only the 
Germans and the Italians, the Slovenes became a 
Western people. They were educated in discipline 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 279 

and order. A happily blended temperament united 
to the influences of centuries of regular adminis- 
tration has endowed the Slovenes with every apti- 
tude for proving themselves a well-organized, disci- 
plined, and at the same time an attractive and ver- 
satile people. The Slovenes would contribute much 
that is valuable to the future Jugoslav community. 
They would represent the sound element of labour, 
organization, and economic occupation. 

Not unless the new Jugoslav State is permitted 
to include the Slovenes will it be able to enter com- 
pletely into the world of Western culture and grad- 
ually to discard the last remnants of Oriental man- 
ner and Byzantine traditions. 

A rigidly centralistic regime would evoke a never- 
ending series of misunderstandings, the revival of 
half-forgotten prejudices. A nation which has al- 
ways existed under many different Governments, 
and has been exposed to the most divergent reli- 
gious, social, and intellectual influences, can only 
hope for untrammelled development if it does not 
attempt in its Constitution to deny the divergences 
incurred by the past. And this will be all the more 
easily accomplished as national union will with a 
mighty impetus draw the individuals together and 
spur them on to fruitful, united enterprise. 

The Slovene mentality, like the Serbian, possesses 
the qualities peculiar to a nation without tradition, 
and only just about to form its society, the unex- 
hausted strength, the primitive instinct, the aver- 



280 A BULWARK AGAINST GERMANY 

sion to the stilted differentiations accepted by the 
older nations. They are opposed to all that is 
formal and ceremonial, and incidentally to social 
artificiality and insincerity. It cannot be denied 
that there is something uncouth, sometimes even 
rude and immature, in types like these. The temper- 
ament is not yet fully controlled by social tact, that 
irreplaceable something which is only acquired in 
the course of generations. But all these deficiencies 
are balanced by an admirable adaptability which is 
peculiar to all the Jugoslavs. 

But are the Slovenes, the sons of a young^ scarce- 
arisen nation, truly so different from their neigh- 
bours, the sons of nations boasting an ancient cul- 
ture? A comparison affords absolute proof of 
educational experiment. A Slovene advocate, 
scholar, or engineer whose parents were peasants 
differs in no way from a German or an Italian with 
a classical education. Although sprung from the 
working classes, a Slovene easily learns to move in 
society, provided he is afforded an opportunity o£ 
doing so, and he will take a greater interest in in- 
tellectual matters than his German or Italian social 
equal. 

As a matter of fact, a love of intellectual life is 
far more innate in the Jugoslav people than in the 
German or Italian masses. Modern culture is dem- 
ocratic, and her doors are open to all without 
class distinction. This fact tends to depreciate the 
cultural traditions of those older nations whose 



GREAT AIMS OF A SMALL PEOPLE 281 

culture was a prerogative of the upper classes and 
anchored in the dominion of ideals of the past, in- 
stead of being rooted in the virgin soil of the demo- 
cratic ideals of to-day. 

The cultural traditions of the great, older nations 
of Europe are becoming the common heritage of an 
international democracy. The truly national liter- 
atures of the present age are those which have 
sprung from modern life and are rooted in modern 
thought and modern sentiment. But even the 
young, traditionless nations, whom modern Democ- 
racy has raised upon the shield, are capable of de- 
veloping a literature and civilization of this type 
consonant with the needs of their age and the pres- 
ent day. It is strange how very little the nations 
without traditions really need yield the pride of 
place to the older ones whenever they are given a 
chance of free development. Perhaps they lack the 
hyper-refinement of decadent sentiment, the pun- 
gent charm of satiety, but, on the other hand, these 
are only to be found in the wealthiest social strata 
of an historical nation and not in the democratic 
masses. It is the inevitable fate of the culture of the 
present day to become a culture of the masses. 
The nations without traditions are spurred on by a 
boundless craving for education; in feverish haste 
they are endeavoring to obtain what criminal fate 
has withheld from them so long. 

There are two possible paths open to those Pow- 
ers who desire to give more justice, greater peace, 



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